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Staying with the combination of Big Brother and transit theme we seem to have drifted into, I want to run with this little snippet.
If you go into a lot of the subway stations now, you'll notice that there are cameras facing each turnstile, from both directions (in and out.) So the cameras can get a good view of the face of anyone entering or leaving the system. I routinely see stills from these cameras on the news following a crime where the NYPD is look for public help in finding suspects. But these cameras are also perfectly positioned to be used by a facial recognition system. I'd be surprised if they haven't either implemented one, or are at least planning to.
Facial recognition took off a few years after 9/11 and has been going strong ever since.
Bloomberg took a trip to London in 2004? He was fascinated by their "Ring of steel" camera setup all over the city with facial recognition tech. He brought it to NYC shortly after and most likely is more sophisticated than London's system.
So yes, those MTA camera;s very much have facial recognition capabilities. Ever notice how relatively quickly criminals are being caught nowadays in NYC? Seems like most times an arrest is made withing 24-48 hours especially when the perp is caught on one of the city's camera's. That's why.
People go along their day ignorant to the fact that their face, cars, etc are being captured and kept in a database daily.
I didn't bring it up, but one of those articles makes the point that since all driver's licenses (and non-drivers IDs) are photo based now, the government has a photo recognition database of everyone. This can be messed with the facial recognition systems.
The MTA should be implementing aggressive automation to greatly reduce headcount. This is a start. The next thing would be to automate the subways. Why they hell do they need a human to make a train start and stop, and open and close doors. After that, once the technology for self driving cars/trucks gets up to snuff, automate the buses. This is the only hope to keep fares under control.
Members of the public feel safer with a human onboard in case of emergency. What if there's a power outage that is apparently going to last for hours? The human on board could radio in, and then lead passengers out of the train if need be. Also on a fairly regular basis trains have to be held when the train operator or conductor has to call for an ambulance for a sick passenger or has to call the police for a crime. The MTA probably keeps people on it's trains for legal liability purposes. If completely automated with no human element, and an emergency occurs that no MTA employee was around to address, think major lawsuit.
With that said, I do think technology will certain erase certain jobs. Now you can buy LIRR and Metro North tickets on your smartphones. The LIRR conductors told me the MTA will introduce scanners for the smartphones in 8 months for the commuter railroads (currently conductors just look at the activated eticket on your phone). When they scanners are deployed they will eventually place them on the subways. Ticket booths will eventually be phased out. But the people working those jobs could be redeployed as station cleaners.
It's funny because my drivers license has the same photo on it for the past 20 years or so. I would like to think I haven't aged in 20 years, but I somehow doubt that.
The government, nothing but a great big greedy, job-killing parasite that claims to be helping you somehow. Watch, I bet they will make you pay a service charge, if they have to send your toll bill in the mail.
It's funny because my drivers license has the same photo on it for the past 20 years or so. I would like to think I haven't aged in 20 years, but I somehow doubt that.
Facial Recognition software is doing more than looking at a photo and matching by the face presented. There's two common methods of software used.
One of these methods relies on criteria like the distance between your eyes, the measurements of your nose, lips and other facial features and matches them against an existing database. The other method used looks at points of interest on the face, and tracks how the pixels in a photograph cluster to form a nose.
In both of these models matching a face is similar to matching a fingerprint. You’re looking for how closely certain characteristics line up to find a match. To get a good match using these models, you need a full-frontal picture of a face, good lighting and a database to compare your “faceprints” to.
The government, nothing but a great big greedy, job-killing parasite that claims to be helping you somehow. Watch, I bet they will make you pay a service charge, if they have to send your toll bill in the mail.
Government is not meant to be a jobs program.
Those without EZ Pass already have to pay higher tolls than those without. This wouldn't change that. And infrastructure is not free. It costs money to operate and maintain.
I think that's more perception than reality. In an emergency, if a human can radio it in, so can the onboard systems. And given the way the subway cars are set up (they are multiple independent units connected together), something should always be working enough to send in the message. The real help is going to come from the first responders (likely fireman) who answer the call.
And if people don't want constantly higher fares, something's going to have to give. That will likely be human employees. And, also, let's not forget that most of the accidents are caused by human error.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NyWriterdude
Members of the public feel safer with a human onboard in case of emergency. What if there's a power outage that is apparently going to last for hours? The human on board could radio in, and then lead passengers out of the train if need be. Also on a fairly regular basis trains have to be held when the train operator or conductor has to call for an ambulance for a sick passenger or has to call the police for a crime. The MTA probably keeps people on it's trains for legal liability purposes. If completely automated with no human element, and an emergency occurs that no MTA employee was around to address, think major lawsuit.
With that said, I do think technology will certain erase certain jobs. Now you can buy LIRR and Metro North tickets on your smartphones. The LIRR conductors told me the MTA will introduce scanners for the smartphones in 8 months for the commuter railroads (currently conductors just look at the activated eticket on your phone). When they scanners are deployed they will eventually place them on the subways. Ticket booths will eventually be phased out. But the people working those jobs could be redeployed as station cleaners.
If you know how photo recognition software works, aging likely wouldn't change your face enough for it not to work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by macnyc2003
It's funny because my drivers license has the same photo on it for the past 20 years or so. I would like to think I haven't aged in 20 years, but I somehow doubt that.
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