Why Crowdsourcing Might Be Better Than the Secret Service

So a person would accidentally take a photo of a sniper, upload it on the internet for PhotoSynth to build a panorama out of, the Secret Service will then look at the panorama, spot the sniper, and take care of it. All of that will happen in several seconds.

Seriously?

There definitely is a case for using technology for protecting VIPs, but it would be smarter for the Secret Service to just get several high-res infrared cameras and hook them to computers analyzing the images for irregularities (ie. "there's a person on the window of that supposedly empty building").

This might be worth looking into after something happened to see exactly what happened. But for prior detection, it's next to worthless.

Go read 'Halting State' and find out about intelligence agencies in the EU sponsoring a game called SPOOKS that essentially turns citizens into spies.

The Secret Service doesn't want to "track a sniper hidden within a sea of people". If they know there's a sniper, they will take them out rather than follow them cleverly around the crowd using some newfangled image zipping technology.

A stretch at best. When the secret service is doing their job right, the sniper gets stopped before he even gets to the event.

And what's a guy going to do at an event like yesterday's, pull out a sniper rifle and shoot from his seat? People aren't going to notice that?

If he's in a surrounding building, then where are these crowdsourced photos coming from?

Maybe more than a stretch....

Although that PhotoSynth tech is pretty damn cool.

further study: Vantage Point, (2008) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443274/