You're On Candid Hit And Run Camera!
from the useful-stuff dept
My sister's car recently was hit by another car while it was parked. Whoever hit her car simple drove off, leaving her to fix the damage herself. Obviously, this happens way too often, and some students in Canada finally decided that something could be done about it. After one of their cars was vandalized, they created a new car alarm that would snap a photo to try to capture whoever was responsible -- and then immediately send an MMS with the photo to the owner's mobile phone. With camera and sensor technology getting cheaper all the time, this becomes much more feasible (in fact, the motion sensors they used apparently came out of a toy from a cereal box). Of course, what's not clear is how the cameras (there are two of them) would be placed in order to make sure it captures the culprit. Also, this was only a prototype solution designed for the students, rather than anything they're going to build for real, but it seems likely that similar commercial solutions probably aren't that far behind.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
You're On Candid Hit And Run Camera!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
What kind of wireless technology is it using to send that picture? Guess I have to read the site before commenting.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
easy to catch the culprit
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: easy to catch the culprit
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: easy to catch the culprit
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
automated sentry
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Car?
*interesting.*
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
So mount 4 cmos cameras, front/back/side/side, all sending 640x480 5 fps pics to a PC w/ HD in the car.
When you are in traffic, it is storing every frame; when you are parked, it records only occasional bursts of movement (more if you're on a city street); at night, it records next to nothing.
This would be very valuable for accidents, reporting "road rage", and yes, hit-and-run damange in parking lots.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]