Tuesday, May 31, 2016

#152 / The Eyes Have It



Evan Nisselson is a partner at LDV Capital, which defines its mission as "investing in people building visual technology businesses with deep domain expertise, passion to solve problems, and the entrepreneurial DNA to succeed." 

Does that sound great, or what? 

Well, it may just be my deep-dyed aversion to "tech talk," but that description of what what LDV Capital is doing is so jargonesque that it really doesn't convey to me the slightest idea of what the company is all about. Luckily, Nisselson has written an article that makes things clear. The article is entitled, "It’s coming! The Internet of Eyes will allow objects to see." I have now put that article on the reading list for my Legal Studies class on "Privacy, Technology, And Freedom."

If you want to see where tech is trying to take us, I do recommend reading Nisselson's article. Privacy and Freedom are not part of what seems to be coming our way, if Nisselson's visions and ambitions are ever achieved:

In the near future, every inanimate object we interact with [will] ... have the ability to see ... In order for this visibility to happen, objects will need the assistance of visual sensors and cameras. Though hotly debated in privacy sectors, experts agree that dozens of tiny cameras and eventually nano cameras will soon be built into objects, providing devices the ability to see from every angle and in real time ... I call this all-seeing market opportunity the Internet of Eyes (IoEyes), and it will empower and connect various inanimate objects – from clothing to mirrors, refrigerators to buildings… maybe even the paint on your walls will have the ability to see. [The system will be] a network of cameras and visual sensors connected via the internet enabling the collection and exchange of visual data on a scale unimaginable before. The ability for these objects to see is only the beginning of a process that will have an exponential impact on all business sectors and, ultimately, the human race.

Nisselson's idea is just one more suggestion that human-created technology should substitute for what the World of Nature has provided. We do have eyes. But they're not everywhere! If you remember your high school reading of George Orwell's 1984, or if you studied enough philosophy to have been exposed to Jeremy Bentham's idea of the "Panopticon," you will understand why the proposed "Internet of Eyes" will not be a force for freedom. 



Image Credits:
(1) and (2) - http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/05/13/the-internet-of-eyes-and-the-personification-of-everything-around-you/#gref

4 comments:

  1. Thank you, David!! Glad to have now discovered your blog. All best wishes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ubiquitous cameras will be enhanced by new, lens-less cameras that are being developed. Basically they are a sheet of pin-hole cameras with a computer programs to merge the images from each pin-hole to make a coherent picture.

    http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/02/15/466272218/bulky-cameras-meet-the-lens-less-flatcam

    With such cameras, any surface, even the inside of a cylinder, can become a camera. Which means wallpaper, refrigerator surfaces, etc. Everything.

    A.F. Rey (Go Slugs!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Extremely interesting!! Thanks, A.F. Rey. I'm going to expose my legal studies students at UCSC to this, in my course on "Privacy, Technology and Freedom."

    ReplyDelete

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