In Less Than Five Years, 45 Billion Cameras Will Be Watching Us (fastcompany.com) 85
An anonymous reader writes: It was a big deal for many when Apple added a second camera to the back of the iPhone 7 Plus last year. In five years, that will be considered quaint. By then, smartphones could sport 13 cameras, allowing them to capture 360-degree, 3D video; create complex augmented reality images onscreen; and mimic with digital processing the optical zoom and aperture effects of an SLR. That's one of the far-out, but near-term, predictions in a new study by LDV Capital, a VC firm that invests in visual technologies such as computer vision. It polled experts at its own portfolio companies and beyond to predict that by 2022, the total number of cameras in the world will reach about 45 billion. Jaw-dropping as that figure is, it doesn't seem so crazy when you realize that today there are already about 14 trillion cameras in the world, according to data from research firms such as Gartner. Next to phones, other camera-hungry products will include robots (including autonomous cars), security cameras, and smart home products like the new Amazon Echo Show, according to LDV. UPDATE: Story has been updated to reflect the updates made to The Fast Company article. The outreach figures are 45 billion cameras by 2022, not trillion.
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How can there be 14 trillion cameras in the world today, as the summary claims? With around 7 billion people in the world, that's 2000 cameras for every living person on earth. I think someone's math is off somewhere.
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Ok, but what about Regular London?
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Re:I'm okay with it (Score:5, Interesting)
There are 2.5 billion smartphones in use. If each of those had two CCD sensors, that's 5 billion.
https://www.statista.com/stati... [statista.com]
245 million CCTV systems were installed in 2014. If that is a yearly estimate, then you could extrapolate over a decade.
https://technology.ihs.com/532... [ihs.com]
That's another 2.5 billion.
If you look at a sales figures of digital SLR cameras vs smartphones, digital cameras are in decline:
https://www.dpreview.com/news/... [dpreview.com]
That puts smartphones at 1.5 billion/year. That could be extrapolated as well.
Possibly 14 billion, but not trillion.
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Remember to add TV sets, tablets, laptops, RC toys, and cars to that, given that home spyware and reversing cameras are now standard.
Still nowhere near 14 trillion I'm sure, but could conceivably approach... 100 billion (cue Dr Evil music).
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Still nowhere near 14 trillion I'm sure, but could conceivably approach... 100 billion (cue Dr Evil music).
No - it could not. That would still be 20+ cameras for every inhabitant of the planet - and while you can have 2.5 billion camera-equiped mobile phones around, that is the only piece of electronics 60% to 70% percent of these people will get. 100 billion is still way off - laptops are counted maybe in the tens of millions, cars with cameras are still non standard in low end models in most of the World,
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20+ cameras per person isn't unreasonable for 1st world countries, but yeah averaged out among the population is ridiculous. Let me count the number of cameras I can think of that just my wife and I own or have access to (leaving out public cameras):
3 phones (6 cameras)
4 laptops (4 cameras)
2 webcams
Front and rear dashcam (2)
Go pro
Sony camera
Old Olympus camera
Endoscope
So that's 18 for 2 people for 9 each. And I'm probably forgetting plenty...
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Maybe he is using other scale.
Then there are 2 million cameras per person. So... no.
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Well, the summary did mention the number came from Gartner, so that explains quite a lot.
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TFA claims that there are already 14 trillion cameras. That is 2000 cameras for every person on earth. That is wildly implausible. I think someone has "trillion" and "billion" confused. I can believe an average of 2.
I think I have 10: 2 on my primary cellphone. One on my burner phone. One on my laptop. On on my external monitor. 2 in my car (dashcam + back-up camera), and 4 security cameras around my house.
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Re: I'm okay with it (Score:2)
Your username, one of my favorite songs.
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Answer (Score:2)
What if I were to tell you that an event so devastating is going to occur over the next 150 years that it will kill everyone presently living upon on the earth?
I'd say "already got it covered thanks".
There are an estimated 6,000,000,000 people living upon the earth today... EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WILL BE DEAD IN 150 YEARS!!!
*YodaVoice* And that... is why you fail */YodaVoice*
Obligatory XKCD (Score:5, Funny)
Soon there will be trillions of cameras all around us.
https://xkcd.com/605/ [xkcd.com]
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Video - The next weapon (Score:4, Interesting)
It's already been proven that software today can manipulate audio and create words you've never said based on samples.
Next-gen video manipulation will be able to put you at the scene of any crime, and we all know how valuable video evidence is in a courtroom today.
Our legal system needs to adjust for this abuse of technology. It will not be able to in time, which will make video evidence the next weapon against innocent victims. Watch and see.
Re:Video - The next weapon (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not sure why you think our legal system will not be able to adjust in time. It would be a trivial thing for a defense attorney to discredit such a video. He could easily just make his own video of the defendant strolling along the bottom of the Marianas Trench or bro-hugging Donald Trump in the oval office. The lawyers will take care of the problem, when it becomes one. Because that's what they do.
You are delusional. The average citizen today cannot afford to defend themselves against the most trivial accusations.
And you want to assume the average citizen could afford a lawyer to spend countless hours manipulating video and creating an effective defense against those who are armed with the technical resources and budget to frame victims?
Expensive lawyers take care of the problem. The rest lose. THAT is our legal system today, and tomorrow.
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Expensive lawyers take care of the problem. The rest lose. THAT is our legal system today, and tomorrow.
Cheap AI will make justice affordable. bye bye lawyers.
I'll spend more money on my Al, and you will lose.
Math don't work... (Score:2)
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44 trillions camera over 5 years is 25 millions a day. I do believe that our dear Governments want to see each one of us piss, but that would still require quite an efficiency that I highly doubt public agencies are capable of.
The efficiency doesn't fucking matter when the data exists. Real-time analysis becomes irrelevant.
At any time, they can target you and extract the historical data they need. THAT is the real issue when it comes to government overreach.
Re: Math don't work... (Score:1)
I have thirty hard drives. I know a file i want is on one of them. Damned if i can find it though.
Back on topic... 44,000,000,000,000 cameras is a lot. Obviously they are extrapolating and using the number of cameras "ever made" vs "in operation".
That's over five hundred cameras per person, so its bullshit either way.
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44 trillions camera over 5 years is 25 millions a day.
Did you flunk 3rd grade math?
You are off by a factor of a thousand.
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He said 25 millionS, plural. He didn't say how many millions.
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Ignorance assumes those cameras are assigned to people.
No, the article itself says that 72% of the 14 trillion cameras we supposedly now have are "handheld cameras" while only 3% are "security". That's 1,300 handheld cameras per person, and is clearly nonsense.
A venture capital company that gets its numbers so wrong is not where I would invest my money.
Typo? (Score:2)
Surely they meant "billions", right? I can't imagine how it's possible that there's 2000 cameras per each person already, including babies and third-world countries.
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Yeah, someone screwed up. There's no way in hell there's over 2000 cameras per person right now.
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Surely they meant "billions", right? I can't imagine how it's possible that there's 2000 cameras per each person already, including babies and third-world countries.
The article keeps hammering on the "trillions" all the way through with no explanation at all of how you can possibly have 2000 cameras per human on Earth at this very moment.
In light of the fact that TFA thinks having smart phones with 13 cameras is a major escalation in the world's camera count (there are currently 2.6 billion smart phones), which would add about 30 billion cameras to the planet if every phone had this feature (going from a supposed 14 billion now to 44 billion) I would have to say" "Yah,
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they are probably counting 2 cameras per phone and maybe saying we will have 3d cameras (x2)per mobile device... i am still shy about 1900 per person though....
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Surely they meant "billions", right? I can't imagine how it's possible that there's 2000 cameras per each person already, including babies and third-world countries.
Uh, would 44 billion cameras make you feel better?
How about 44 million cameras?
Would 4.4 million allow you to sleep at night?
How about 440,000?
Gee, somehow I don't feel any fucking better about privacy or security...can't imagine why...
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i hope each of us could enjoy photography and if you count 3 mobile devices with 2 cameras each... 42 billion is ok by me.
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i hope each of us could enjoy photography and if you count 3 mobile devices with 2 cameras each... 42 billion is ok by me.
Photography is not why 44 billion cameras exist. Neither is the reason popular apps are asking to control them at all times.
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just describing my use case and for most people that use mobile device cameras. now the abuse of the product... well that's another thing altogether.
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A particular kind of photography called "the selfie" accounts for about forty percent of them alone.
You're right on the second part though, all those apps want access for reasons other than photography.
Currently 2000 cameras per person now? (Score:3)
14 trillion cameras for 7 billion people? That's 2000 cameras per man, woman, and child on the planet. That just doesn't seem to make any sense. Between current and old phones, the old web cam for the PC, and some older unused HD video recorders, I personally have about 20. Most are packed up in a box of old tech junk. Someone who had a lot may have 100 as a total guess. So where would the other 1900 come from? Most cameras set up for surveillance do so to record the activities of many.
If we assumed there are currently 2000 cameras per person, and even that every person in the United States had 100 cameras in their possession, that would leave 613,700,000,000 cameras unaccounted for in the US. That's one camera for every 170 square feet of the nation. I don't think we're quite at that level of surveillance yet.
7 trillion cameras today? Maybe in Luxembourg... (Score:2)
Some may think I am only joking...
First thought: Attack Vector (Score:2)
When you say "44 trillion cameras", what comes first to mind is each of them being part of a botnet...
Better beef up those firewalls everyone!
As for people worrying about being seen, I see an upcoming trend where people who are bothered by that will choose to live such disgusting lives that no-one would choose to watch them.
In a preverse twist, they will become popular celebrities, and the future foretold by Sesame Street where Oscar the Grouch was wildly liked will come to pass on a scale unheard of.
Standard shitty clickbait title (Score:2)
The article says there will be 44 trillion cameras, not that they will be "watching us".
Bullshit! (Score:1)
44 teracameras (Score:3)
That's an entire busload of Japanese tourists.
At $1/camera... (Score:2)
That's just shy of THE ENTIRE GDP FOR THE US.
So. Not. Buying.
Unless, of course, "cameras" is code for "leaves," a la HHGTTG.
God, I'm a putz. (Score:2)
I got my brain thinking 14 trillion. At 44 trillion, it's roughly 2.5 times the entire US GDP.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
No, not a second camera on the back (Score:2)
It was a big deal for many when Apple added a second camera to the back of the iPhone 7 Plus last year.
No. Idiot.
Apple did not add a second camera to the back of the iPhone 7 Plus. Apple added a second lens to the one camera on the back of the iPhone 7 Plus.
The iPhone 7 Plus has two cameras, not three. The camera on the front has one lens and the camera on the back has two lenses.
How is this on the front page? (Score:1)
LDV Capital have posted a correction. (Score:1)
LDV have updated their website with billions instead of trillions.