In class this
week we discussed about the topic “urban tomography”. The use of electronics
has been used to capture special events, sports, concerts, or the normal flow
of people. The devices that are used in urban tomography are cell phones, still
images, GPS, audio recordings, etc. These are used to give many views of urban
activity in cities. Urban tomography is more effective when you have a greater
number of devices that are acquiring data from urban life.
http://www.metrans.org/research/2011/11-05.htm
A pilot program has been started in Los Angeles at a major transportation hub. They had this in effect for smartphones since January 2009. It has been placed there to help monitor threats and recording high quality video. With the improvement of technology with smartphones (Wifi, 3G), video content can be uploaded and tagged by the place and time the footage was captured. The article discussed the problem with possibly having thousands of video content of the same activities. The article said that a “display assistant” may need to be made to help find the videos that the want to view. The article stated that the benefits of tomography are the “improved, more efficient security at transportation hubs.”
http://www.metrans.org/research/2011/11-05.htm
A pilot program has been started in Los Angeles at a major transportation hub. They had this in effect for smartphones since January 2009. It has been placed there to help monitor threats and recording high quality video. With the improvement of technology with smartphones (Wifi, 3G), video content can be uploaded and tagged by the place and time the footage was captured. The article discussed the problem with possibly having thousands of video content of the same activities. The article said that a “display assistant” may need to be made to help find the videos that the want to view. The article stated that the benefits of tomography are the “improved, more efficient security at transportation hubs.”
The article you posted is incredibly interesting, especially because a lot of people from the older generations denounce smart phones as useless and "a waste of time." But, this is a twist on a usage of smart phones that one wouldn't really think about: patching together video feeds to create a secure environment. It seems like a lot of work to make this happen... as you said a "'display assistant' may need to be made to help find the videos that people want to view." Yet, I think there is a payoff from making this display assistant, which becomes readily apparent when we see safer areas all around the world (due to smart phone technology).
ReplyDeletei agre completely with you, i believe that this type of technology could be very beneficial to a city. i didn't put this is my post but i think it said the cost of this experiment was $50,000. However, i believe that this program increased in the security of the transportation hub; i would have really liked if the article had some statistics on the security increase.
ReplyDeletewbrandon@vt.edu
Limited post and resources.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really sure if the technology that is being proposed is what is best for our country. When two or three cmaeras were placed at a stop light in my home town, everyone was upset. Sure, it does make the city a safer place, in this example, protecting drivers from people running red lights. But we are already being watched at pretty much all times when we are in public. Do we really want private cameras being able to track our every move as well? Is a safer enviorment really worth the new lack of privacy this technology will bring?
ReplyDelete-Bridget McDermott
Urban Tomography is when someone is trying to get as many slices on urban life through smart-phones, such as the iPhone or the Droid. The slices I am referring to are video clips with sound, made by a large amount of smartphone users, automatically transmitted to a central server and displayed in a way that allows for careful study. The article you posted is an excellent example of urban tomography and a great way to increase security personnel. However, I believe that implement urban tomography can destroy privacy and personal space since each person is being watched by a camera or as some would say, "Big Brother".
ReplyDeleteIt may be too excessive to implement this idea, not mentioning the cost of installing and monitoring this system. I dont know if there is a big enough issue here and if this idea is necessarily the correct point of action.
ReplyDelete