Re: No Subject ( camera nonsense )
I think we read a message not so long ago from a 'punk who spotted the prototype of these 'bomb-sniffing cameras' along a California highway, no?
Don't remember the date but when asked to pinpoint the thing so someone else could actually go take a look there was no response from the original poster. I wrote it off as babbling. There is one device above the westbound section of 580 on the Livermore side of the Altamont pass. About the size of a small SpectraPhysics Laser, the surface appears solid - i.e. no visual sensor. My best guess - radar for either speed measurement or traffic density measurement. Chemical sniffer - NOT. Radiation detector - perhaps, but I doubt it. Best bet - traffic analysis. These counties here are always fighting about population growth and the traffic implications. As if one stinking town owns the entire godamned federal interstate. Little, carpetbagging Napoleans everywhere you look. As for neural systems detecting illegal activity - yeah? what? Two people talking? Looking disreputable? Having their hands *appear* to coincide for a second? This "technology", if detected in a public place, should be zapped and the promoters tarred and feathered*. *Superglue or RTV and polyfill may legally be substituted for the traditional materials. m
Traffic analysis is performed using wire loops in the the road. The sensors mountend on overpasses near truck scales fulfill a different (so far unknown) purpose. --Lucky On Wed, 9 Dec 1998, Michael Motyka wrote:
I think we read a message not so long ago from a 'punk who spotted the prototype of these 'bomb-sniffing cameras' along a California highway, no?
Don't remember the date but when asked to pinpoint the thing so someone else could actually go take a look there was no response from the original poster. I wrote it off as babbling.
There is one device above the westbound section of 580 on the Livermore side of the Altamont pass. About the size of a small SpectraPhysics Laser, the surface appears solid - i.e. no visual sensor. My best guess - radar for either speed measurement or traffic density measurement. Chemical sniffer - NOT. Radiation detector - perhaps, but I doubt it.
Best bet - traffic analysis. These counties here are always fighting about population growth and the traffic implications. As if one stinking town owns the entire godamned federal interstate. Little, carpetbagging Napoleans everywhere you look.
As for neural systems detecting illegal activity - yeah? what? Two people talking? Looking disreputable? Having their hands *appear* to coincide for a second? This "technology", if detected in a public place, should be zapped and the promoters tarred and feathered*.
*Superglue or RTV and polyfill may legally be substituted for the traditional materials.
m
-- Lucky Green <shamrock@cypherpunks.to> PGP v5 encrypted email preferred.
Lucky Green wrote:
Traffic analysis is performed using wire loops in the the road. The sensors mountend on overpasses near truck scales fulfill a different (so far unknown) purpose.
--Lucky
The wire loops I know about use 60Hz AC and measure inductance. I believe that this would make them unsuitable as speed measurement devices since measurement would extend over a number of cycles. They might work if they were widely separated but you would have to be sure there was only one vehicle generating the peaks. I'd stick with the speed detector radar for now to explain the overhead doo-dads. m
The wire loops (in sets of two a few meters apart) are in every stretch of freeway in California. They report the numbers and speed of all vehicles. Have so for decades. This allows the Caltrans operation centers to instantly identify backups due to accidents, etc. Once in a while, the evening news do a story on these operation centers. So we still don't know what the grey sensors do. Note that these sensors are typically mounted only above the two right lanes. --Lucky On Wed, 9 Dec 1998, Michael Motyka wrote:
Lucky Green wrote:
Traffic analysis is performed using wire loops in the the road. The sensors mountend on overpasses near truck scales fulfill a different (so far unknown) purpose.
--Lucky
The wire loops I know about use 60Hz AC and measure inductance. I believe that this would make them unsuitable as speed measurement devices since measurement would extend over a number of cycles. They might work if they were widely separated but you would have to be sure there was only one vehicle generating the peaks.
I'd stick with the speed detector radar for now to explain the overhead doo-dads.
m
-- Lucky Green <shamrock@cypherpunks.to> PGP v5 encrypted email preferred.
The wire loops (in sets of two a few meters apart) are in every stretch of freeway in California. They report the numbers and speed of all vehicles. Have so for decades. This allows the Caltrans operation centers to instantly identify backups due to accidents, etc. Once in a while, the evening news do a story on these operation centers.
So we still don't know what the grey sensors do. Note that these sensors are typically mounted only above the two right lanes.
Check out <http://traffic.maxwell.com> for real-time results of these sensors. You used to be able to get results for individual sensors, but they made the site "easier to use". -- Marshall Marshall Clow Adobe Systems <mailto:mclow@mailhost2.csusm.edu> Freedom isn't being able to do what you like, it's allowing someone else to do or say something you hate and supporting their right to do so.
On the 10 Freeway about 2 miles east of Downtown Los Angeles, three are overhead rails on both sides of the freeway with a "sensor" of some type over EACH lane. A total of about 10 sensors. There are also cameras all over the place. I would imagine that it is a future revenue center for the state of California. Obfuscate your license plate to lower your road taxes.
participants (4)
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KS -
Lucky Green -
Marshall Clow -
Michael Motyka