Though the field is still in its infancy, many people believe that biometrics will play a critical role in future computers, and especially in electronic commerce. Access levels will include the ability to use credit card information to make electronic purchases.
In the future biometrics will be used to identify and then control and monitor individuals or people in groups that are under surveillance. (Such as: prisoners, terrorists, and people that are a known threat or suspicious of being involved in an illegal or dishonest activity and are at risk to the government or police, etc.)
Surveillance Cameras With Computer Chips Or Smart Sensors That Predict And/Or Sense Criminal Activities, Alerts Police
With sophisticated cameras and smart sensor systems, law enforcement agencies and transportation departments across the United States are now able to proactively monitor and respond to crimes or accidents as they unfold; the sensors can also assist transportation departments in analyzing traffic patterns in real time; the system could allow officials to change one way streets, design real time traffic signals, and multiple speed limits to make traffic flow more smoothly.
The East Orange New Jersey police department was the first U.S. agency to install a Smart Imaging Sensor system as part of its broader network of security cameras around the city.
These smart sensors process images that the high-resolution cameras record in real time and can automatically detect and/or predict when a crime is occurring. When it senses something it will alert law enforcement officials instantly.
Government agencies and business around the world have already taken notice of predictive sensors.
Recently, an automated camera system called AIsight (pronounced eyesight), was installed in Boston after the 2013 marathon bombing, that monitors camera feeds in real time and alerts authorities if it spots unusual activity.
AIsight cameras use a statistical method called machine learning to learn what is normal for an area and then alerts on abnormal activity. That could be picking up anything from unusual loitering to activity occurring in restricted areas.
Read more »
Echelon (Signals Intelligence)
Trillions of bytes of textual archive and thousands of online users, or gigabytes of live data stream per day that are filtered against tens of thousands of complex interest profiles.
Designed and coordinated by NSA, the ECHELON system is used to intercept ordinary e-mail, fax, telex, and telephone communications carried over the world’s telecommunications networks. Unlike many of the electronic spy systems developed during the Cold War, ECHELON is designed primarily for non-military targets: governments, organizations, businesses, and individuals in virtually every country. It potentially affects every person communicating between (and sometimes within) countries anywhere in the world. The United States National Security Agency (NSA) uses Echelon to intercept and process international communications passing via communications satellites also. It is one part of a global surveillance systems that intercept messages from the Internet, from undersea cables, from radio transmissions, from secret equipment installed inside embassies, or use orbiting satellites to monitor signals anywhere on the earth's surface.
Read more »
