US scientists develop ‘respectful camera’

Story link: US scientists develop ‘respectful camera’ by Jan Harris

Computer scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are developing a CCTV camera which can obscure a person’s face with an oval spot in order to provide less invasive surveillance and respect privacy.

The ‘respectful camera’, which is being trialled in the US, is designed for use in day-to-day surveillance situations and the oval spots can be removed is necessary to allow authorities to carry out investigations.

The respectful camera was tested on a building site. It successfully identified workers wearing a special marker vest 93 per cent of the time, and blocked their faces.

In environments with more controlled lighting, detection levels increased to 96 per cent. The developers hope to eventually replace the marker vest with a button-sized tag that would be unobtrusive for people to wear