
RoboCop is real at the Stanford Shopping Center - Udik
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/20/robocop-robot-mall-security-guard-palo-alto-california
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click170
Gathering license plate info? "Intercepting" cell phone pings?

On it's own, meh, but combined with this...

>> All the information is streamed to Knightscope’s cloud software and then
streamed back either to the customer’s control center, or in some cases to a
mobile app held by a human security guard.

Am I the only one that feels like this is a bit of a datagrab by this
Knightscope company? If there's an option for purchasers to have the data
streamed directly to their servers then my concern is lessened, but I'm
increasingly turned off by the relentless vacuuming up of data that is
becoming so prevalent in new devices these days.

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bolasanibk
Anecdata: At least the one in stanford mall, rolls around in between buildings
and is no where near any parking or streets. I doubt it captures many license
plates.

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Steeeve
I noticed a few of these there occasionally over the last year, but starting
two weeks ago it looks like they are a permanent presence. They roll into
their own charging stations.

It's an interesting concept. I'm not sure how much I like it. On the one hand,
it's a great reference if anything bad ever happens. On the other hand, while
a mall is a public place you still don't expect to be tracked to the level of
detail that such a device actually does. I know a handful of people that
simply won't go there anymore.

Personally, the cell phone tracking bugs me. I do not expect that my cell
signals are tracked by anyone but the phone company. This kind of technology
makes me think about dropping my cell altogether. Sure it's nice to have one,
but honestly I can easily get by without having one constantly attached to me.
I'm not that important that people need to contact me wherever I am.

I also feel negatively about mass facial recognition. I _almost_ understand
for large events, but I'm simply not that afraid of terrorism. If we start
talking about malls doing it I would just rather not be on camera. If private
industry doesn't self-regulate in this regard, people will push the government
for privacy and that could kill any budding businesses. If I were an investor
I would simply stay away from that kind of technology.

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StanislavPetrov
>but I'm simply not that afraid of terrorism.

What it really boils down to is that you have a .00000001% chance of being
affected by terrorism, but a 100% chance of being affected by strongarm
"responses to terrorism". The sad fact is that most of our population is
cowardly and/or apathetic enough to simply accept our ever growing loss of
privacy and freedom without objection (or in many cases, notice).

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jakelarkin
"infra-red cameras; microphones ... detection systems that can intercept the
pings of mobile phone devices, and license-plate reading software that can
process 300 license plates every minute"

a surveillance drone for mall-cops. just great /s

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Animats
What does this thing actually _do_ besides roll around and look impressive?
Can it answer questions? Is it sometimes a remote presence device, so people
can talk to a human? This seems closer to Japanese marketing robots than an
actual security function.

There have been "robot guards" before, but they're for empty buildings,
checking to see that they're empty and not being robbed. That's useful, since
the job is utterly boring and better done by hardware. The Army was trying out
a few for guarding their storage buildings about a decade ago.

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mc32
At $7/hr to rent it, security guards should start thinking about pivoting
career.

There was an OECD opinion piece recently where they said on balance automation
would not destroy jobs. I don't believe it. It will begin by eating these low
skills jobs away and then eat its way upwards.

~~~
ekianjo
A real security guard does more than this robot, though. Especially in case of
trouble.

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jonknee
A real rent-a-cop calls the real cops if there is any trouble (which the robot
can certainly do). They are a deterrent, not enforcers.

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a3n
Security guards can give CPR.

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ekianjo
That, and they have actually a pretty complete neural network with years of
training to adapt to a bunch of circumstances.

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camhenlin
Many of them, not so much

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ekianjo
No, you are thinking about cops maybe?

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TeMPOraL
So maybe it'd be better if security guards could call enforcer robots if shit
hits the fan?

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ekianjo
At least there would be more chance this way that the procedure is followed
before using firearms.

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a3n
As long as there's no regression with a new release.

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golemotron
How long before kids start pranking by dropping blankets on top of them?

~~~
euyyn
:(

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dfischer
This is really eye-opening on where we are in society compared to sci-fi.

We're here boys, and girls, we've finally made it!

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CM30
I'm probably missing something obvious here, but is there a reason the article
mentions this is regards to the Sandy Hook shooting incident? Because there
aren't exactly any features here that would have helped much in preventing it,
unless you think detecting the shooter's car by the numberplate is somehow
going to have made a major difference.

If they really wanted to stop things like school shootings and terrorist
attacks, then the robot needs to actually be armed in some way, since no one
is going to take this thing as some sort of deterrent.

Really, it seems mostly useful as a sort of tourist attraction rather than
anything more, since it's apparently really popular with the people visiting
the mall.

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etherealmachine
I work a few buildings down from Knightscope. Walking to lunch my co-workers
and I were talking about how they would make a perfect bit on Silicon Valley.
They're just bumbling around the parking lot continually, looking both
hilarious and vaguely creepy.

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rmason
So tempted to run a Kickstarter and get one of these for Detroit. Detroit is
getting the RoboCop statue and it's only fair they get one of these to give
the cops a little help.

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atomical
Is it smart enough not to scan a picture of a license plate?

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Shivetya
Needs to look like a Dalek or other recognizable robot and people will
blithely ignore the invasions of privacy and whatnot.

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CM30
I think designing it after a known cyborg killing machine like a Dalek would
make the feeling worse rather than better. Especially in the UK.

That said, a design based on a famous robot or cyborg would be a pretty
interesting way to make one of these things fit in at a sci-fi convention or
something. It'd at least help theme the event slightly more.

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lawnchair_larry
That's fucked up.

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corndoge
Reminds me of the security drones in psychopass.

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samwestdev
Looks like those police bots in psycho pass

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keyle
You think it's cute now...

