Imagine you are a wanted criminal or terrorist. You know that in the soon-to-be police state that America is leaning towards, there will be cameras on every corner, in every building, on every public transportation service. Heck, it is in many of these places already. So, what is a criminal to do ? Hiding their identity was once the way but it is coming to an end because of the improving facial recognition computer programs currently being used. A once simple process of growing some facial hair, wearing sunglasses, changing haircut or color, wear hats is coming to an end. Still, there are so many other ways criminals can hide amongst us and from the pending camera-happy America that we are soon becoming. So, what is America’s next step to stay ahead of all this ?
Yup, why not begin a database of gait traits that can be identified; sort of like an AFIS for feet? After all, people do have different foot types, and combining that with gait patterns provides unique clues to an what makes us unique.
In the above article , “A team of New York University researchers has honed in on motion capture as a particularly promising approach to analysis. Associate computer science professor Chris Bregler is studying whether potential security threats can be identified via unique patterns of movement. How might someone walk if he was carrying a bomb in his backpack?” “A person’s body moves differently when it must compensate for some unnatural burden, such as a heavy backpack or even high-heeled shoes, says Bregler.”
“Bregler and his team have identified certain movement signatures with the help of the same motion-capture technology used for special effects in the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies.”
In present day America, one unfamiliar with suicide bombers, we feel safe most of the time. But as these guys are investigating, carrying excess weight that one is not typically accustomed to, could generate some traceable gait characteristics that a camera could pick up on. But the problem, as we see it, is that if the terrorists know what we are looking for, they can train themselves to adapt to the added weight.
It took a decade or more for facial recognition software to become perfected by the government. It is so simple now that Facebook has thrust it upon all of our photo galleries. So who knows, in another decade or so, all of our gait patterns could be mapped and logged for the government and the “next Facebook” phenomenon.
Hopefully these companies will come calling on the guys of gait……. the experts.
Shawn and Ivo…….The Gait Guys
in the infamous words of Steven Tyler, …..“walk this way”……. or
the immortal words of James Taylor…..“there’s something in the way she moves …..”
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