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Twenty years ago, David Brin wrote about the death of privacy in "Earth" (later, he wrote a non-fiction book covering this in more detail, The Transparent Society. The lynchpin piece of tech behind this was the ability to record everything that people saw during the day, and then post it online. Which was pretty forward thinking for 1990.
Today,
jwz posted a link to this:

It has a five hour memory. It records all of the time, but only starts saving when you hit record - at which point it starts at the beginning of its 30-second buffer. In other words, you see something suspicious, hit the button, and get the thing that you saw recorded for later perusal.
If I was going to be somewhere the police were going to be, well, policing, then considering the death of Ian Tomlinson, and the intermittent bad behaviour which occurs, I'd be wearing one of these things. Heck, faced with a group of people all wearing recording devices, would you want to cause trouble?
Next up - software to take the output from a few hundred of these, map them together, and produce a 3D playback that you can then pan a virtual camera through...
Today,
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It has a five hour memory. It records all of the time, but only starts saving when you hit record - at which point it starts at the beginning of its 30-second buffer. In other words, you see something suspicious, hit the button, and get the thing that you saw recorded for later perusal.
If I was going to be somewhere the police were going to be, well, policing, then considering the death of Ian Tomlinson, and the intermittent bad behaviour which occurs, I'd be wearing one of these things. Heck, faced with a group of people all wearing recording devices, would you want to cause trouble?
Next up - software to take the output from a few hundred of these, map them together, and produce a 3D playback that you can then pan a virtual camera through...
no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 09:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 09:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 09:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 09:47 am (UTC)I'd put those down as causing so much disruption as to make them effectively impossible.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 09:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 10:04 am (UTC)They don't have the legal right to jam protestors, and nor are they likely to get it, as recording police activity is perfectly legal, and has been ruled so repeatedly. The occasional member of the police bashing someone is one thing, you're pretty much talking about widespread high-level conspiracy.
If we were operating a police state, then yes, I'd expect this. In our current society, it seems rather ridiculous.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 10:27 am (UTC)The police don't officially have the right to kill passers-by during protests, and it now seems that they unofficially do have that right. There seems to be very little political or judicial will for ensuring the police actually stay within the law.
Still, you may well be right about this and I hope you are - in which case I hope that future demos are covered in people using cellphones to upload video footage in real time.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 09:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 09:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 10:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 10:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 10:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 10:39 am (UTC)IME they'd be likely to claim any jamming was activists trying to bring down the police comms.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 10:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 02:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 03:48 pm (UTC)(Edit to add: here via
no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 04:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 04:24 pm (UTC)(Hello, I'm here from
no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 04:29 pm (UTC)(and
no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 05:00 pm (UTC)When I was a member of ACT-UP the cops used to record our demonstrations, so I suppose this wouldn't be any different.
Funny though, they didn't like it when I took pictures of them.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 05:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 12:05 pm (UTC)"Looxcie is always on, continuously videoing – there's no record button. When you experience something you want to share, just click the Instant Clip button to save a clip of the last thirty seconds."
This way, you get to record stuff without having to know if what you're about to witness is worth recording. It's already being recorded, it just needs to be saved.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 12:14 pm (UTC)"you hit record - at which point it starts at the beginning of its 30-second buffer. In other words, you see something suspicious, hit the button, and get the thing that you saw recorded for later perusal."
But I clearly wasn't explaining myself well!
no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 02:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-27 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-28 12:59 am (UTC)1. The ability to wireless upload continuously.
This is good for police as evidence can't get lost and they don't have to do any extra steps to upload their data.
This can be used with cops being required to wear them and to assure they don't "lose" or modify the device or data.
It can also be used by protesters so that when police try to take the device off them even that will be recorded and transmitted...
2. The ability to record to sim card like memory.
This way recordings can be taken even in RF jammed areas. The sim cards are so small they could be passed amongst a crowd, hidden in clothing, or even hidden at the site. Also good for cops when some criminals get smart enough to jam the cops...