evolution

That line is, of course, from Winston Churchill’s speech to Parliament from 18 June 1940, after the British retreat and evacuation from Dunkirk, preparing his people for what he believed was an impending Nazi invasion of the British Isles.

Britain may not make it a hundred years. Here is one of the many reasons why:

POLICE and councils are considering monitoring conversations in the street using high-powered microphones attached to CCTV cameras, write Steven Swinford and Nicola Smith.

The microphones can detect conversations 100 yards away and record aggressive exchanges before they become violent.

The devices are used at 300 sites in Holland and police, councils and transport officials in London have shown an interest in installing them before the 2012 Olympics…[snip]

The equipment can pick up aggressive tones on the basis of 12 factors, including decibel level, pitch and the speed at which words are spoken. Background noise is filtered out, enabling the camera to focus on specific conversations in public places.

If the aggressive behaviour continues, police can intervene before an incident escalates. Privacy laws in Holland limit the recording of sound to short bursts. Derek van der Vorst, director of Sound Intelligence, the company that created the technology, said: “It is technically capable of being live 24 hours a day and recording 24 hours a day. It really depends on the privacy laws in a particular country.”

I’m sure they’ll never be abused.

I think George Orwell must be somewhere shaking his head.

Bonus question: What movie am I thinking of right now?

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 26th, 2006 at 17:34 and is filed under freedom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.