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The Cops Are Listening To Muzzle Shots By Braxton Younts 7/7/05 |
Chicago's police department is using military-surveillance technology to cut crime to 1960s levels. After installing
video surveillance cameras around the city, Chicago’s murder rate plummeted to levels unseen in forty years. Now the police are hoping to cut crime not only by watching, but also by listening.
When a shot rings out, the city’s new technology recognizes the gun’s report within a two-block radius, directs the camera in the general direction, and dials 911.
"Instead of just having eyes, you have the advantage of both eyes and ears," said Bryan Baker, chief executive of
Safety Dynamics LLC, the company in suburban Oak Brook that makes the systems.
Listening surveillance isn’t only catching on in Chicago, where thirty devices have been installed in crime-ridden neighborhoods in tandem with
video cameras. Baker mentions that multiple installations are slated for the future.
The technology comes out of military applications. In Iraq, soldiers utilize similar technology. Developed in 2003 and 2004 by
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in conjunction with
BBN Technologies Inc., a sound detector called “Boomerang” is mounted on a vehicle, locating hostile gunfire.
The Safety Dynamics System employed in Chicago, formally known as Smart Sensor Enabled Neural Threat Recognition and Identification, abbreviated SENTRI, uses four microphones to triangulate the location of the gunshot.
The military’s Boomerang differs by actually detecting shock and sound waves from firing guns.
The ACLU has expressed concern regarding privacy issues, and proponents of SENTRI listening systems insist that the units cannot be used to
bug homes, or even recognize human voices. Source: designtechnica.com |
