Will jotting down license plates pay the rent?

Re:Will jotting down license plates pay the rent? by pavel_lishin on Tuesday April 06, 2010 @01:23PM (#1245097)

Not even necessarily a smartphone. Set up a camera at your window hooked up to a spare machine, take photos when motion is detected and look for license plates.

You can probably automate the whole process.

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Re:Will jotting down license plates pay the rent? by paulgb on Tuesday April 06, 2010 @01:48PM (#1245170)

I'm partly excited and partly worried about the implications of how easy automated data collection like this has become. Imagine doing the same with face recognition software or RFID drivers' licenses.

Privacy issues aside, it would be a fun dataset to play with.

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Re:Will jotting down license plates pay the rent? by pavel_lishin on Tuesday April 06, 2010 @04:13PM (#1245502)

I don't really know how to feel about it. On the one hand, it's an invasion of privacy; on the other hand, you can't really outlaw data collection in a public space, can you?

Anyway, tales like A Scanner Darkly seem oddly prophetic and relevant: http://ahprojects.com/c/itp/thesis

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