Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

Latest By
Category:


Armor
Artificial Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work

"Bureaucracies hide their mistakes, because people's careers are tied to those mistakes. Therefore, bureaucracies are a perfect mechanism for perpetuating mistakes."
- Frank Herbert

Gait-Cam  
  A surveillance camera system that analyzes the unique way in which people walk, to identify them.  

Class ended in ten minutes, and that didn't leave me much time to prepare. The first order of business was those pesky gait-recognition cameras. Like I said, they'd started out as face-recognition cameras, but those had been ruled unconstitutional. As far as I know, no court has yet determined whether these gait-cams are any more legal, but until they do, we're stuck with them.

"Gait" is a fancy word for the way you walk. People are pretty good at spotting gaits...

Gait-recognition software takes pictures of your motion, tries to isolate you in the pics as a silhouette, and then tries to match the silhouette to a database to see if it knows who you are. It's a biometric identifier, like finger prints or retina-scans, but it's got a lot more "collisions" than either of those. A biometric "collision" is when a measurement matches more than one person...

...I prefer to inject a little randomness into my attacks on gait-recognition; I put a handful of gravel into each shoe. Cheap and effective, and no two steps are the same.

The cameras used to set off an alert every time someone they didn't recognize stepped onto campus...

...now it just tries to keep track of who's where, when. If someone leaves by the school gates during classes, their gait is checked to see if it sorta-kinda matches any student gait and if it does, whoop-whoop-whoop, ring the alarm!

Technovelgy from Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow.
Published by Tor Teen in 2008
Additional resources -

Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Little Brother
  More Ideas and Technology by Cory Doctorow
  Tech news articles related to Little Brother
  Tech news articles related to works by Cory Doctorow

Gait-Cam-related news articles:
  - Spy Satellite Gait Analysis ID's You
  - Chinese Watrix Gait Recognition Watching You Always

Articles related to Surveillance
India Ponders Always-On Smartphone Location Tracking
LingYuan Vehicle Roof Drones Now Available, ala Blade Runner 2049
Chameleon Personalized Privacy Protection Mask
Spherical Police Robot Rolls In China

Want to Contribute an Item? It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add it here.

<Previous
Next>

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

 

 

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Science Fiction in the News

Golf Ball Test Robot Wears Them Out
"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'

Boring Company Vegas Loop Like Asimov Said
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'

Rigid Metallic Clothing From Science Fiction To You
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'

Is The Seattle Ultrasonics C-200 A Heinlein Vibroblade?
'It ain't a vibroblade. It's steel. Messy.'

Roborock Saros Z70 Is A Robot Vacuum With An Arm
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'

A Beautiful Visualization Of Compact Food
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'

Bone-Building Drug Evenity Approved
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'

Secret Kill Switch Found In Yutong Buses
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'

Inmotion Electric Unicycle In Combat
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'

Grok Scores Best In Psychological Tests
'Try to find out how he ticks...'

More SF in the News

More Beyond Technovelgy

Home | Glossary | Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.