Third eye for the police

A webcam in the front bumper of a police car could feed the video frames to an optical character recognition software which would fish out license plate numbers of the passing vehicles in near real time and continuously search the database of stolen vehicles as well as owners with suspended licenses or multiple unpaid parking tickets (etc.). Such a system installed on multiple vehicles could work continuously, logging the GPS location of the vehicle and the time of the match even while the police car is parked.

Update (May 16th, '06): Came across this article about Automatic Numberplate Recognition (ANPR) cameras already installed and in use in London. I guess I was a couple of years late with this, although installing these into police cars which circulate around the city seems like the next logical step...

Update 2: I suspect Nice Systems are thinking about this

Update 3: ...and here is the GLAVID / Platefinder product from g2tactics (noticed in July 2006 via the Wired LPR article; apparently there was a previous Wired LPR article as well)

Update 4: an e-mail about this to friends triggered a google ad to SeeCar License Plate Recognition system apparently being developed since 2003

Three more before I forget

1) Today I saw this article about order by chaos and immediately thought back to what I told my dad while learning about entropy in school: What if chaos is just a form of higher order that we can not yet comprehend and simplify? This would put the nature's perceived drive to increase entropy as a basis for explanation of how such apparent complexity of the world around us came to be. I still suspect this may be the case, whether the apparent chaos is due to a high number of input variables, a concept parallel to Heisenberg uncertainty principle or a rule similar to rule 110 in cellular automata.

2) If one computer is running a multiplayer 3D first person shooter game, while another computer is running a bot, a way to connect the two would be via USB ports. To avoid modifying the code of the retail games, the computer running the bot would have to emulate a keyboard over one USB connection and a mouse over another USB connection. Does a USB Keyboard/Mouse emulator driver exist? If not, I should save up for a patent...

Update (June 2006): One of the comments to this story mentions using a USB Thumbdrive presenting itself as a keyboard and injecting keystrokes.

3) On a silly note: I can't believe that I have not seen a semi-automatic mechanically movable toilet seat widely available in the retail stores yet. When this topic came up I mentioned that the system to differentiate men from women may be an interesting one and that even a manual pedal control would make things more comfortable, although not automatic. My uncle-in-law's response: "Differentiate men from women by weight [on the plate in front of the toilet]." That could work great for a family... Although I suspect those who will be able to afford it may opt for a urinal. Which I guess in turn makes this more of an idea regarding user identification by weight. A Bluetooth chair seat plate which re-logs you into the system after being logged out for inactivity? Or maybe even keeps you logged in if you have not left your seat?