John Lott's Website: England will try to develop a computer system that will read body language to determine whether someone is carrying a concealed handgun

I don't know about what others think, but this surely seems to me like this would get a lot of false positives.

In an attempt to tackle gun crime in the UK, researchers from Loughborough University are developing an innovative identification system that will use CCTV cameras to spot individuals carrying concealed firearms.

Starting in June, the three-year multi-environment deployable universal software application (Medusa) project aims to develop intelligent software that can detect a person carrying a concealed weapon in real time.

While it is difficult to predict if someone is carrying a gun before crime occurs, Professor Alastair Gale, head of Loughborough University's Applied Vision Research Centre and leader of Medusa, said there are a number of cues the CCTV operator can pick up. These tend to be overt and covert cues (conscious and subconscious) and they will form the base of the intelligent software at the heart of the system.

The team will examine CCTV footage of people carrying concealed firearms to identify characteristics associated with the behaviour of criminals before they commit a gun-related crime. These will include body stance, gait, movement and eye contact with cameras. Once acquired, this information will be used to develop a novel machine-learning system for behavioural interpretation. Armed with this data, the CCTV cameras will scan footage automatically and match behavioural characteristics that indicate if an individual might be carrying a gun. . . . .

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...: The parralels with George Orwell's 1984 grow by the day, regardless that Orwell's real name was Blair.

Blair's govt has a largely urban base,

The working class have been legally dissarmed since the 1920's so gun control tends to play well with them

Labour gun controls can be sold to their supporters as hitting the class enemy (new labour or not, labour is not averse to scratching the scab off class hatred

- look at the fox hunting issue, that blair used to take the focus off his troubles time and again.

things like this take the heat off labour's failure to address problems of armed crime, poor education, and the fact that the growth of the british economy under labour is all in the state sector and at the expense of tax payers and business

I doubt whether the computer system will work,

even if it does, you have reported that the british police are unwilling to go near an armed criminal, even when called

the cctv coverage is pretty thorough in town centres (just watch those cameras follow a good looking girl down the street) but fall off as you move out from the centre.

what cctv seems to have been unable to do is keep armed crime down,

it keeps going up, and the cons are now less likely to go to court, less likely to get convicted and less likely to do time. and compared to the US spend less time behind bars if they do go to jail.

I forget what the relative figures are now, but you were about twice as likely to get mugged robbed or burgled in the UK as in the USA

and by excluding the gun ban centres like New York, I think the UK murder rate was also higher? please enlighten me on this last one.

one desirable side effect, if this is not money down the drain, would be arrests of people acting cock sure because they were carrying a labour party membership card...; 4/28/2006 5:58 AM
John Lott said...: Thanks for your comments. Your insights into the political process there are greatly appreciated.; 5/04/2006 5:14 PM
"gunner" said...: They need a computer programme for this? Any halfway experienced American cop can spot a habitual pistol carrier in a heartbeat. In my home state, where it is legal, i habitually carry a .45 holstered on my right hip. once while travelling (unarmed) in New Jersey I stopped at a police station to ask local directions, and as i walked up to the duty desk sergeant he looked at me then his eyes went to my right hip where my sidearm usually rode. I'd been "made" at a glance, no problem, as above I was unarmed obeying New Jersey law, leaving my gun at home.; 5/29/2006 10:18 PM