[ExI] ai application, was: RE: suv hipsters

[Mike Dougherty]

2011/10/22 spike <spike66 at att.net>

>  One approach I thought of is to look at the linear features, such as the
> high contrast roof posts.  Then I think I could (Myself!  A non-software
> hipster!) write a script that takes horizontal lines of pixels and figures
> out the equations to back out the four angles shown above.  That should be a
> unique signature for each design.  If I get clever with it, I might be able
> to figure out a way to take the six ratios of the angles, in which case we
> could compensate for the foreshortening effect when a Detroit is
> photographed at an angle, as in Dave’s link above.  Or, use the ratio of
> major diameter to minor diameter of the rear rim to calculate the angle of
> view, and compensate that back out.****
>
> ** **
>
> That would be cool, but not AI.  Now if we can figure out how to do that,
> we might be able to create the database to train the software using digital
> images of Detroits found on the internet.  If that software learns how to
> identify a Detroit using only our algorithm and photos from the internet,
> that would be sorta how you and I learn how to identify Detroits.  That
> would be artificial intelligence, ja?  ****
>
> ** **
>
> Cool!****
>
> ** **
>
> Then we get only a few volunteer crimefighters to run the algorithm and set
> up a digital imager on their mailboxes, let them run constantly, and we can
> bag the perps by the time they get finished thinking about a crime.  Lives
> can be saved.  Property saved.  Taxes saved, because we need way fewer
> cops.  Prison space saved, because perps realize it is hopeless as hell,
> with mechanical eyes everywhere.  They go into some other line of business.
> ****
>
> **
>

Department of Transportation already has plate number and car types (hell,
Vehicle Identification Numbers) as well as your yearly mileage - with the
transponder they use for "speedpass" at tollbooths, they also know when you
last crossed a reader - and they're not just at tollbooths, they use the
transponders to report average travel times between two busy points on major
highways (and important secondary roads)  The traffic cameras in major
cities take pictures too, so there's a pretty good chance they know the
normal driver of the vehicle and could detect when the car is driven by the
spouse or a carjacker.

My point is that this data already exists and would likely be trivial to
mashup.  Granted, proles don't have general access to it - but it'd be
cheaper to buy that access than to attempt to recreate it all from whole
cloth.  So right, how much value was stolen compared to the investment
needed for us proles to access the proles-activity database?  Yeah, not cost
effective.

This is the bigger issue.  They have all the information.  They have all the
"rights" to use the information.  FOIA ensures that with enough patience we
might be able to file the correct forms and wait until the information
retrieved has little-to-no value before it is sent in as unusable a form as
possible.  FOIA gets us government information - but there is really useful
information in corporate databases.  The proles (whom the data is about) are
not allowed to access these databases without the kind of money that
large(r) corporations are willing to spend for access rights to mine the
information - for those nuggets that make the entry costs worthwhile.
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