[Am-info] Better Get To Work, Your Computer Could Be Watching

[Fred A. Miller]

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Better Get To Work, Your Computer Could Be Watching

Your days of doodling, dozing, and playing Minesweeper may be 
nearing an end. Mubarak Shah, a professor of computer science and 
director of the Computer Vision Lab at the University of Central 
Florida, is developing software that can track and record what 
employees are doing while they work.

"You can tell if someone is just drinking coffee all the time and 
not working," Shah says, "or if a suspicious person enters the 
office and is working at someone else's computer." The system 
uses a digital video camera to watch an office, and it can do 
real-time image recognition and tracking of what's happening. It 
can follow people around the office and tell when they pick 
something up, use a phone, or type at a computer. Other variants 
of the system could watch an assembly process--say, putting 
together burgers at a fast-food joint--and monitor workers to 
make sure they get all the ingredients right.

But don't be worried about losing your nap time just yet. Shah 
says it will take five to 10 years before the system is 
sophisticated enough to process the countless complex behaviors 
of a real-world office. But less complex, process-oriented 
systems such as the burger monitor should be available within a 
year or so.

The system has many other potential applications that could make 
our lives better. Cameras installed in cars can monitor a 
driver's alertness by watching eye motion, head tilt, and 
movement. Shah's lab is also working with the Florida Department 
of Transportation to develop a system that will watch railway 
crossings and make sure the gates are closed and cars are out of 
the way before trains pass through. - David M. Ewalt

Go deeper. Read
Candid Cameras Take To The Sky 
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eEyZ0Bce7K0V20Zkj0A1

The Lap Of Security
http://update.informationweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eEyZ0Bce7K0V20S5A0AK

- -- 
- ----/ /  _                	Fred A. Miller
- ---/ /  (_)__  __ ____  __	Systems Administrator
- --/ /__/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ /	Cornell Univ. Press Services
- -/____/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\	fm@cupserv.org

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