random idea, wonder if its legal

Not really sure the purpose of doing this, but thought it'd be interesting.

Rent an office or some space overlooking a busy freeway. Aim a super high quality video camera towards the freeway, and use advanced software to read license plates as cars go by. Put the data up right away on a website available to the public.

Possible uses: see if someone you are trying to track is driving, and at what time. What if they say they are somewhere else? What if they are not supposed to to be driving there? Text notification when a certain plate number passes by. I'm sure there a bunch of uses for the data.

Or is it illegal, and an invasion of privacy?

Although that sounds interesting, i wouldnt think it would be illegal just to film card liscence plates becausr you see them everydat anyway.

Interesting concept. Be a third party vendor for monitoring eh? hehehe

Cool idea ;) Would need a small network o cameras and the program would be super simplistic.

Do a Dual layer program. One to make the dump file and another to read the file constantly. Have like a sms notification sent out or an e-mail with the picture and time etc...

Phil wrote:

Not really sure the purpose of doing this, but thought it'd be interesting. Rent an office or some space overlooking a busy freeway. Aim a super high quality video camera towards the freeway, and use advanced software to read license plates as cars go by. Put the data up right away on a website available to the public. Possible uses: see if someone you are trying to track is driving, and at what time. What if they say they are somewhere else? What if they are not supposed to to be driving there? Text notification when a certain plate number passes by. I'm sure there a bunch of uses for the data. Or is it illegal, and an invasion of privacy?

Loosely, I'm going to have to say that it is legal. I assume plate information is public information. New police cars are implimenting a similar technology, and I believe I saw something like this on Canadian police cars in a video.

However, it's probably.. no it is.. a fast trip to a lawsuit (or several).

That being said.. It might be a hard idea to market.

It would be legal to record all of it, I think the illegal part would come in when you started tracking it all.

Why would you want to do the man's job for him ?

Cleveland PD has camera technology that scans plates and runs them automatically when they drive by notifies officers that there is a warrant , stolen vehicle , ect

bad venge wrote:

Cleveland PD has camera technology that scans plates and runs them automatically when they drive by notifies officers that there is a warrant , stolen vehicle , ect

Was just going to say, this type of technology is already available and widely used by police in big cities.

What if this camera was in a busy place and read faces instead of plates?
(London does this)

I believe they are using the facial recognition software at airports as well

bad venge wrote:

Cleveland PD has camera technology that scans plates and runs them automatically when they drive by notifies officers that there is a warrant , stolen vehicle , ect

Except it doesn't work on specialty plates. EVERY time I go to Ohio I always get stopped AT LEAST once b/c there damn software can't read my Purdue plate and flags it as possibly stolen.

Gotta love technology
It does the same for the OHIO issued specialty plates , Buckeyes/Indians/Browns ect

I'm pretty sure it is legit...

One of the options for a senior project was exactly this. Of course, it was sponsored by the state DOT for the purpose of tracking speeders, etc. I had no interest in furthering the governments ability to track folks.

It could be a little trickier if a private citizen were to set this up... You would have to have access to DMV records, which not all states have open access. I would only assume this would be setup as a pay site for consumers... and it would most definitely end up in court, probably the first time a stalker tracks down their mark.

EricCartman wrote:

I'm pretty sure it is legit... One of the options for a senior project was exactly this. Of course, it was sponsored by the state DOT for the purpose of tracking speeders, etc. I had no interest in furthering the governments ability to track folks. It could be a little trickier if a private citizen were to set this up... You would have to have access to DMV records, which not all states have open access. I would only assume this would be setup as a pay site for consumers... and it would most definitely end up in court, probably the first time a stalker tracks down their mark.

You wouldn't need access to the DMV as one wouldn't care who's driving the car. I think what he's saying is that you have a camera monitoring the freeway. Someone says, "I want to know if license plate 63C3942 drives by the camera." Then, if that plate ever gets picked up the person gets a text or email.

No need for access to any records or anything. Just monitoring traffic.

Hehehe Philium... Are you tailing your girlfriend?

If you wanna track someone that bad just put a gps tracker on their car without them knowing it. Seems a whole lot easier to me.

PwrRngr wrote:

You wouldn't need access to the DMV as one wouldn't care who's driving the car. I think what he's saying is that you have a camera monitoring the freeway. Someone says, "I want to know if license plate 63C3942 drives by the camera." Then, if that plate ever gets picked up the person gets a text or email. No need for access to any records or anything. Just monitoring traffic.

True... I was just thinking of the next level.

Would be a good idea for strict ass parents monitering where their kids are going in their car.