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View Full Version : New speed cameras trap motorists from SPACE. - UK Telegraph




Cowlesy
04-20-2010, 05:56 AM
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7608153/New-speed-cameras-trap-motorists-from-space.html

You knew it'd be Great Britain. Why do the people let their bureaucrats get away with this crap???


The Home Office is testing the cameras at two sites, one in Southwark, London, and the other A374 between Antony and Torpoint in Cornwall.

The `SpeedSpike’ system, which calculates average speed between any two points in the network, has been developed by PIPS Technology Ltd, an American-owned company with a base in Hampshire.

Details of the trials are contained in a House of Commons report. The company said in its evidence that the cameras enabled "number plate capture in all weather conditions, 24 hours a day". It also referred to the system's "low cost" and ease of installation.

The system could be used for "main road enforcement for congestion reduction and speed enforcement", and could help to "eliminate rat-runs" and cut speeds outside schools, it added. It could also reduce the need for speed humps.

The development of speed cameras has raised concerns about expanding state surveillance.

The Home Office said it was unable to comment on the trials because of "commercial confidentiality".

The AA said it would watch the system “carefully” but it did not believe there was anything sinister. “It is a natural evolution of the technology that is out there,” a spokesman said.

Bern
04-20-2010, 06:41 AM
In order for this system to work, they are tracking the movement of a license plate from point to point. This info is quite likely recorded in a database. Outrageous.

JohnEngland
04-20-2010, 06:48 AM
You knew it'd be Great Britain. Why do the people let their bureaucrats get away with this crap???

I believe I can answer this - apathy. Apathy is simply soul-destroying and, I believe, the sign of a dying society. It's kinda like what Mark Steyn talks about.

What's that quote they attribute to that Tytler guy:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage."

I think Britain is in the "apathy to dependence" region.

Cowlesy
04-20-2010, 07:19 AM
I believe I can answer this - apathy. Apathy is simply soul-destroying and, I believe, the sign of a dying society. It's kinda like what Mark Steyn talks about.

What's that quote they attribute to that Tytler guy:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage."

I think Britain is in the "apathy to dependence" region.

+1

Anti Federalist
04-20-2010, 10:12 AM
I believe I can answer this - apathy. Apathy is simply soul-destroying and, I believe, the sign of a dying society.

I think Britain is in the "apathy to dependence" region.

I'd only disagree to the point at which the UK is.

Dependence to bondage I say.




You knew it'd be Great Britain. Why do the people let their bureaucrats get away with this crap???

Yet there is a spirit of resistance that is much stronger than here.

http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm

Cowlesy
04-20-2010, 11:08 AM
I'd only disagree to the point at which the UK is.

Dependence to bondage I say.



Yet there is a spirit of resistance that is much stronger than here.

http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm

Wow... that's a lot of smoked hardware right there.

Anti Federalist
04-20-2010, 11:09 AM
Wow... that's a lot of smoked hardware right there.

They've got a lock on their images so you can't hot link them or I'd post a few here.

Yeah, that's what I thought as well.:D

tangent4ronpaul
04-20-2010, 11:12 AM
In order for this system to work, they are tracking the movement of a license plate from point to point. This info is quite likely recorded in a database. Outrageous.

What do you think pole cams in this country do?

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2007/10/01/amd_camera.jpg


These (UK) camera's are terrestrial:
http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/p/346547/2347582.aspx

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/04/20/article-1267278-0933A8D4000005DC-762_468x304.jpg

What is interesting about this is if the UK mandates GPS units be installed in all cars (unlikely, could be disabled and older vehicles would be grandfathered in, making the system worthless) OR if they are able to passively track via GPS without the presence of a GPS unit. Most likely, the cams have GPS and the cars are painted by radar and tracked. Having the sat in the loop seems like a complete waste of money. In this country (or the UK), they could do the same with pole cams - keeping track of how long it took to go from point (cam) A to point (cam) B.

Also worth noting is that air traffic control in this country is going into space and terrestrial radar's phased out. While that will put an end to nap of the earth flying as a useful technique, it's also incredibly stupid as the entire air trafic control system could be taken out with an ASAT weapon. Think 9/11 x 5,000

-t

dannno
04-20-2010, 11:28 AM
lol, they said "speed humps" :D

tangent4ronpaul
04-20-2010, 11:36 AM
lol, they said "speed humps" :D

We have speed humps out here. They are gentler on cars than speed bumps. Kind of the little brother of speed bumps.

The unintended consequence is that you can go over them at speed, and teens sometimes do for kicks. Kind of like skiing over a mogul and the brief thrill of being airborn for a second. In short, sometimes they encourage faster driving...

-t

Bern
04-20-2010, 12:01 PM
What do you think pole cams in this country do?

They capture images of license plates and record the image and time/date stamp. Do they auto-decode the license plate (OCR), or is that done later by a human? I'm not sure. In either event, unless the car was caught running a red (or yellow) light, I don't think the data is stored in a database anywhere (would love to know if there is proof that I'm mistaken here).

The system described in the OP is necessarily storing point data for every vehicle that crosses by in order to later calculate the speed when it passes another point. It is definitely keeping track of point to point movement.

tangent4ronpaul
04-20-2010, 12:16 PM
The OCR is automatic. It doesn't store images. The information is stored in a database and they often use a separate (private) channel of the cable TV network for communication.

Red light camera's are different.

I used to have some really good links on this, but they died with a HD. If you google "pole cam" you will find tons of links - unfortunately, most are about films or spray to mask your license plate or news/blog entries that contain inaccurate information.

-t