In Philip K. Dick's sci-fi novel The Minority Report (which was later made into the blockbuster movie starring Tom Cruise), Precrime officers apprehend would-be criminals before they can commit crimes.

Well, it turns out that the Santa Cruz police department has a similar program. No, they don't utilize mutant precogs, instead they have something even cooler: a computer program that can predict when and where crimes will occur.

... Santa Cruz’s method is more sophisticated than most. Based on models for predicting aftershocks from earthquakes, it generates projections about which areas and windows of time are at highest risk for future crimes by analyzing and detecting patterns in years of past crime data. The projections are recalibrated daily, as new crimes occur and updated data is fed into the program.

On the day the women were arrested, for example, the program identified the approximately one-square-block area where the parking garage is situated as one of the highest-risk locations for car burglaries.

Erica Goode of The New York Times reports: Link (Photo: Jim Wilson/The NY Times)

In the science fiction movie Minority Report, Tom Cruise’s character was able to control a computer using a special glove. Computer scientists Aaron Zinman, Doug Fritz, Greg Elliot, and Roy Shilkrot developed something similar using the Kinect gaming platform.

via Make

Previously: Gesture-Based Glove Interface

If Berk’s ground-breaking computer models work, it could be key for a state parole board that has come under increasing scrutiny for releasing violent criminals well before they reach their maximum sentence, only to see them go on to commit more violent crimes.[...]

Killers who kill again after they are released highlight the need for the state to find a more accurate way to predict which inmates present the highest risk when paroled.

So the parole board has given Berk a $228,000 grant to build his system, pilot it next year and have it in place by 2011.

“We’re hoping this will take the board’s decision-making to a higher level,” parole board spokesman Leo Dunn said. “If a computer program can help prevent the death of someone like [Denise Merhi], then the board wants that information.”

Link via DVICE | Photo by Flickr user Tim Pearce, Los Gatos used under Creative Commons license

Well, it’s inching nearer to reality in Tokyo, Japan:

Digital advertising billboards being trialled in Japan are fitted with cameras that read the gender and age group of people looking at them to tailor their commercial messages.

A consortium of 11 railway companies launched the one-year pilot project last month, and has set up 27 of the high-tech advertising displays in subway commuter stations around Tokyo.

"The camera can distinguish a person’s sex and approximate age, even if the person only walks by in front of the display, at least if he or she looks at the screen for a second," said a spokesman for the project.

If data for different locations is analysed, companies can provide interactive advertisements "which meet the interest of people who use the station at a certain time," the project said in a statement.

Link – via Singularity Hub

Computers are programmed to analyse the movements of people or vehicles in the camera frame. If someone is seen lurking in a particular area, the computer will send out an alarm to a CCTV operator.

The operator will then check the image and – if concerned – ring the police. The aim is to stop crimes before they are committed. If a vehicle is moving too fast or slow – indicating joyriding or kerb-crawling, for example – a similar alert could be given.

Link

I admit I had to look up kerb crawling