Camera's in Catseyes!?!
Discussion
Just heard a rumour not sure how true it is, can anyone confirm?
Apparently in Wednesday 20th Metro Newspaper there is an article saying police are thinking of installing catseye speed camera's. The camera's look like normal catseye's but have a camera that is linked to a Police car.
Graham
Edited by Graham B on Friday 22 June 11:06
There's one slight flaw (well two actually) in all this hysteria. One, the company concerned (http://www.astucia.co.uk) does make intelligent road studs, but makes no claims about having the capability to fit cameras in them. Two, despite newspaper reports (in The Times) claiming that the company concerned had filed various patents about using them as speed cameras, they definitely haven't. They do have patents which show they can detect motion, or changes in light intensity. So while I suppose the studs themselves could detect motion, they certainly couldn't take the pictures. It's possible the camera could be mounted elsewhere I guess, and just triggered by the studs. In which case, it wouldn't be significantly more advanced than Gatso. Personally I think the Police are exaggerating in a big way. They would certainly like you to believe every catseye could be a camera. That way, they wouldn't actually have to install any at all.
I remember in item on tomorrows world where a guy had found a way of making cats eyes change colour with temperature and flash when detecting movement, could this be whats causing the hysteria. If the camera theory is true then a route would have to be cut in the road from a source of electrical power which should be a giveaway on a regularly used road
EVERYONE PLEASE NOTE:
The government didn't want to install the intelligent cats eye as despite it being able to alert motorists to dangerous situations, it was too expensive. Put a speed detection device in and they love it, bet they get installed and no one even mentions the SAFETY uses for these studs. Why do they want hidden secret cameras ANYWAY? Surely it's supposed to be a visible deterrent in an accident blackspot?
Maybe we should install speed detection devices into our cars and then speed everywhere to catch other speeding motorists with our devices? The government would most likely give us free license to do that, after all... sod the safety.... think of the revenue!!!
Urban Myth I'm sure of it.
Look at the size of a Gatso/Spec/Truvelo
and think all that other junk has got to buried under the cats eye its then got to transmit to a parked car from underground, get power, and have some sort of maintenance access, think about the practicalities its too easy to believe technology can do anything.
It's borrocks
And before some smart arse points out that they put cameras in cricket stumps I know but it doesn't measure the speed of the bloody ball, produce an image admissable in court, or have a 5-10 year zero maintenance life span !!!!
Edited by mel on Friday 3rd August 12:21
Hi,
some more info about the "speeding faeries"
Speeding faeries have been specially trained by the government to catch speeding motorists by flying near motorways and other roads with very small digital cameras that have microscopic air-speed indicators embedded in them.
The faeries setup laptops in a wood or copse near the road and then hang around by the side of the road until a potential speeding car is spotted. Then they fly behind the car and take a photograph on the digital camera (which imprints the speed on the photo rather like current GATSO devices). Returning to their laptops, they connect their faerie mobile phones and dial-up to a central government computer (buried 5 miles below a small island in the channel). This super-computer than cross references the FBI, Interpol and Scotland Yard records before emailing a summons/fine notice to the police station nearest the offender. Finally, brainwashed conspiracy theorists have been employed by the government to hand-deliver said summons/fine notification. They are disguised as Pizza-delivery people to help them 'blend in'.
These scary, but frankly chilling facts, were told to me by "Geezer" Dave in the pub, so they must be true....
Thanks
BigBadPaul
"Whilst still experimental, the technology is all there. Pictures showed new catseyes that looked significantly different from standard and rather bigger, using a prism on top of the unit."
Wonder how srong they are? Have to start driving along with a wheel over the catseyes - faced with enough motorists doing this, the little cameras should drop to bits pretty quickly from the vibration (or will my suspension break first?).
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