How do you Handle Surveillance Cams in your Sci-fi?

[Joshua Jones]

So, I tried to express how banks of monitors and people watching them are very outdated. In the video below is some very old tech, which if you apply it to facial features you'll get a minimal idea how FRT works:

That said, here is a 'slow/few parts per min.' inspection (inspection starts 40 seconds in):

That's just recognizing physical features. Add to that checking for numerous internal and external features (dental work layouts, thermal scans, heart rhythms, etc....all on the fly), you can see how without one person working they can check for a lot...in a crowd even. Think about it, FRT is so developed they give it to YOU as an option to unlock your phone.

Now add everything you carry constantly scanned. Electronics, credit cards, drivers licenses, currency, and you start to form a whole picture. Plus, it's tracked continuously. So, even a microsecond blip is noticed if you're not where the software algorithm predicts you should be. Now consider even your expressions, vital signs, posture, voice and >>inspired reactions<< are constantly tested. IOW, a light blinks by the ceiling, how do you react? Is it consistent or does it suggest you're overcompensating in some way (focused).

It goes on and on there is so much more to it, all done with a computer...today. Not 100 years from now, but right now. If a flag is thrown, people don't review the data then decide to pick you up. The software tells them to detain X person, then after they have you they review the information if they even feel the need to do that.

Stuff you see on TV and movies is antiquated tech at best.

K2

Agreed, and that’s related to the point I was trying to make above. Evading surveillance is a completely different conversation if you’re talking about disappearing from a government level organization while in a monitored city compared to infiltrating a roving extremist camp in (insert impoverished country here) or evading the sensors of a space station/ armada. Context is essential here for giving useful suggestions (although the above suggestions are certainly useful, provided they relate to the situation the OP imagined!).

Or, you know, it could just be me dying the death of a thousand qualifiers... not that I ever would do that...

Btw, good to see you again K2! It’s been a bit...

 

[-K2-]

Btw, good to see you again K2! It’s been a bit...

Ditto Wondered where you went.

One last thing I'd like to mention... Folks would be stunned if they knew how massive a role algorithms play in not only mapping what they do, who they are and so on, but predicting what they will do based on that data, and even controlling their thinking to a great degree.

I've mentioned in the past 'smart TVs' and how though it's ancient technology (they themselves around for a while), the significant influential power they openly advertised (e.g. read the original Samsung user agreement). Not only do they log (and transmit) user choice data, they log gestures, expressions, recognize individuals, and log what content generates which result. That data is not only used to customize advertising, but also generated to control the individual's mood/emotions.

That's just a TV and a company generating revenue with advertisers and content providers. Social media does it...and the list goes on, up to and including governments (slips on tin-foil, it's sad but true). So, take the technology to monitor everything about a person, generate algorithms that work and alter themselves in milliseconds, couple those with emotion/thought influencing algorithms, establish intended goals...and you can see how 1984 level surveillance and control is child-like.

I have an anecdotal story regarding algorithm tech my spouse and our friends demonstrated for me, but the point is (long story short), even today people don't have the slightest idea of how well monitored (and controlled) they are...though the information is out there in spades (thanks in part to Snowden and others, and I mean official documents, not conspiracy nonsense).

So, any surveillance in a story (today or near future) needs to account for that.

K2

 

[Ursa major]

Sci-fi tends to link these cameras to AI

I ought to have mentioned that my "PoV society" is paranoid with regard to real AI, specifically with the idea that machines could, if given half a chance, develop consciousness.

The last thing that society would do would be to create interconnected intelligent systems to "spy" on them.

 

[Joshua Jones]

Ditto Wondered where you went.

K2

Yeah, life got crazy. I was working for a child serving charity doing outreach and development when we last spoke. By the end of my time there I was also the office manager, in house accountant, IT, HR, event planning and secondary for programs. I would regularly work 12 hour days, 6, sometimes 7 days a week. After a while of that I asked myself why it made sense for me to work like this and never see my kids when the charity primarily exists because dads aren’t involved with their kids (it’s a mentoring organization). About this time I was informed by one of my friends that worked at my home city that a grant writer position was opening up... so I now work for the government and only do grants and occasional volunteer projects on the clock. And, my usual week now involves about 25-30 hours of actual work and the rest I can use for “professional development” like writing forums... so I can now Chron on the clock!

 

[-K2-]

I ought to have mentioned that my "PoV society" is paranoid with regard to real AI, specifically with the idea that machines could, if given half a chance, develop consciousness.

The last thing that society would do would be to create interconnected intelligent systems to "spy" on them.

Society, yes. Governments, power blocks, and companies seeking sales not in the least. Morality among all except the common man is a rare thing.

Just for the record, that's why in my current work I generated a situation where most current tech is wiped out (the ability)...and resulted in old style tactics (food/water/sleep deprivation, violence, terror, overcrowding, etc.) all play a role in controlling the masses. It's easier to show logically and eventually overcome.

K2

 

[Ursa major]

Society, yes. Governments, power blocks, and companies seeking sales not in the least. Morality among all except the common man is a rare thing.

I could explain why this doesn't happen...


...but someone (not me; someone from the books) would have to kill you immediately afterwards....

 

[Danny McG]

I would think a useful idea to overcome this would be to get a poorly controlled germ warfare lab to release a global pandemic.
Then it would be considered normal to walk around with most of your face covered

 

[Robert Zwilling]

My cameras were all AI controlled (Justice Machines) and were more interested in going back over the past after something happened where more information was required of a subjects movements. Any outright movements that lead to destruction or violence were tagged as soon as it became evident, though there was a definite response time for any actions taken. The character used a disguise which was put on in a very crowded bar with a lot of foot traffic coming and going. Because the cameras were not evenly distributed there were natural gaps in the surveillance. In regions where there was very light internet coverage, there were far fewer cameras or none at all. Private companies might have their own cameras or none at all, inside their own buildings.

 

[Joshua Jones]

I would think a useful idea to overcome this would be to get a poorly controlled germ warfare lab to release a global pandemic.
Then it would be considered normal to walk around with most of your face covered

Well played good sir. Well played...

My cameras were all AI controlled (Justice Machines) and were more interested in going back over the past after something happened where more information was required of a subjects movements. Any outright movements that lead to destruction or violence were tagged as soon as it became evident, though there was a definite response time for any actions taken. The character used a disguise which was put on in a very crowded bar with a lot of foot traffic coming and going. Because the cameras were not evenly distributed there were natural gaps in the surveillance. In regions where there was very light internet coverage, there were far fewer cameras or none at all. Private companies might have their own cameras or none at all, inside their own buildings.

Nice! I like the detail you give there where it isn’t a blanket all or nothing, but a nuanced network with logical weak points.

 

[Mark Turnbull]

I've seen and read a lot of fiction that just ignores them (Venom being a recent example) and as a viewer it bugged me a bit but not too much. Weirdly however, I think it's easier for established or 'credible' TV/films/books to get away with it rather than a more independent work.

One option is that the person is seen - either they hide their face well enough that it's known someone is there but not who, or there are consequences. I think pushing your characters to the edge makes them push even harder to be better and overcome the obstacles.

 

[Emissarius]

Honestly, I'd rather forego the whole surveillance thing altogether, but I think it'll raise a few eyebrows when your setting is futuristic. I probably should've mentioned in my first post that most of the MC's sneaking around actually takes place within his own household, which is a castle/ keep where he's the son of a minor nobility who've taken permanent residence with the duke and have their own wing (along with a couple of other Houses/ families). In a sci-fi setting, it's hard to imagine a duke's castle without any surveillance considering all the, ah, sinister plots and assassination attempts. Frank Herbert managed to do that in Dune, but Dune is over 50 years old and it's set in an era where the Butlerian Jihad decimated most technology. My work's got all sorts of gadgetry and holograms. I don't think it would work that the castle is devoid of surveillance.

Regarding what I said earlier, would readers ask questions if surveillance cameras are everywhere yet the MC is never caught because, well, he's in his own household? Would that be excuse enough if he's sneaking around at 3 in the morning?

 

[Joshua Jones]

Honestly, I'd rather forego the whole surveillance thing altogether, but I think it'll raise a few eyebrows when your setting is futuristic. I probably should've mentioned in my first post that most of the MC's sneaking around actually takes place within his own household, which is a castle/ keep where he's the son of a minor nobility who've taken permanent residence with the duke and have their own wing (along with a couple of other Houses/ families). In a sci-fi setting, it's hard to imagine a duke's castle without any surveillance considering all the, ah, sinister plots and assassination attempts. Frank Herbert managed to do that in Dune, but Dune is over 50 years old and it's set in an era where the Butlerian Jihad decimated most technology. My work's got all sorts of gadgetry and holograms. I don't think it would work that the castle is devoid of surveillance.

Regarding what I said earlier, would readers ask questions if surveillance cameras are everywhere yet the MC is never caught because, well, he's in his own household? Would that be excuse enough if he's sneaking around at 3 in the morning?

Ok, this helps with understanding the context of the sneaking. I'm presuming he's attempting to access areas of the castle/keep to which he does not have permission, rather than he is confined to his room for (insert offence here) and wouldn't be permitted to be anywhere else in the castle?

Assuming this, I would argue hacking either the system or individual cameras would be the best approach. If you're looking at 3:00 AM, presumably there would not be much activity in the corridors, so relative freedom could be obtained by looping the same couple minutes. Of course, if the data is regularly confirmed by a computer system, or there is a display of camera time for a guard to see, this will have to be adjusted as well in the hacking. But yeah, basically having the same footage loop would probably be sufficient to deal with the cameras.

That is, unless they anticipate that sort of attack. Say, they included motion detectors which activate at, say, 11:00 PM as a fail-safe. Of course, your MC could know about those and disable them as well... which could have been anticipated and dealt with by (insert intervention here). That's the part that, at least to me, is fun; figuring out how a group will anticipate attacks and counter them, followed by how the MC can beat the anticipated response.

 

[Vladd67]

In a recent traveller adventure review on YouTube Seth Skorkowski covered this point. As the adventure was written in the 80s cctv was as prevalent as now and his players raised the question of cameras. I believe he glossed over them by stating to save money the base had a lot of fake cameras around to stop trouble makers.

 

[Major Eazy]

If you're writing a sci-fi, and your MC does lots of sneaking around inside towers and buildings, how do you usually have them avoid surveillance cams aside from carrying a piece of tech that busts every camera in the building? Writers of fantasy usually don't have a problem with that sort of thing, and having been one myself for years, neither did I. Now that I'm writing a fantasy-turned-space opera though, I need to circle back and find an explanation for all the MC's espionage moments. Any suggestions/ references from novels or TV would be appreciated.

That would depend on a lot of other factor.

I would try to do research of the building first, find out where the cameras are, so I could try to avoid them, I would know where the blind spots are and try to get into those area where none of the camera watch.

I could try to hack into their computer system, record every cameras, and try to program it so that each cameras would be in a loop, the monitors are showing replays of a recordings, so that I could sneak about while the security guards are watching a recording of a blank wall.

I could ask myself questions on the subject of what is it I'm sneaking around for. For example: If it is to find a file that the person keeps locked up somewhere. I would ask myself "Where would he keep the file?" Or if it is to rescue someone, I would ask "Where would they hold her?" Once I've figure it out, I would sneak around in the areas I think best, thus trying to avoid and dodge fewer cameras, rather than searching all over the place, thus taking too much time trying to dodge so many cameras.

I may also want to try to short circuit their system as long as I make it looks like a fault or an accident, so hoping that with the building's power being cut off, the cameras are not working.

I could also try to spray a mist of water on the camera's lens, the kind of mist/water that would make it look like a faulty heating steamed up the camera. Hoping after I complete my mission, they would just have the maintenance people going around cleaning up the lens and muttering "Stupid big cheese spend millions of dollars on technology and can't even afford a nice air conditioning system to kill that humidity!"

If possible, blackmail or bribe one of the security guards, the one watching the screens, to look the other way.

It's your story, try to be creative, put yourself in the shoes of the main character. If he's a detective, then try to think like a detective. If he's a secret agent, then think like a spy. If he's a crook, then think like a crook. Ask yourself "What would I do? How would I like to do it?" and you could come up with some ideas.

 

[Emissarius]

Ok, this helps with understanding the context of the sneaking. I'm presuming he's attempting to access areas of the castle/keep to which he does not have permission, rather than he is confined to his room for (insert offence here) and wouldn't be permitted to be anywhere else in the castle?

Dang, should've explained a bit more! Actually, as a son of a minor nobility (and a kid, at that), he's not permitted anywhere outside his family's own wing. Think Harry Potter being confined to the Gryffindor common room during bedtime. He'd use the invisibility cloak to sneak around. My MC sneaks out late at night to spy on other nobles who he thinks intend to assasinate the duke.

 

[Joshua Jones]

Dang, should've explained a bit more! Actually, as a son of a minor nobility (and a kid, at that), he's not permitted anywhere outside his family's own wing. Think Harry Potter being confined to the Gryffindor common room during bedtime. He'd use the invisibility cloak to sneak around. My MC sneaks out late at night to spy on other nobles who he thinks intend to assasinate the duke.

Sorry, sometimes I need it broken down pretty thoroughly... I blame it on having two relatively young kids...

Ok, so not allowed outside of his wing... not gonna pass for an worker there... and unless he is a prodigy probably doesn't have the technical expertise to hack the security system.

So basically he has three options. First, he could find access ways which do not show up on the surveillance. This would include ventilation systems, hiding under dining carts/in laundry carts, etc. In these cases, him being a child will likely be advantageous, as he can fit through/into smaller areas. Downside is it's kind of cliche.

The second option is human hacking. Technically speaking (assuming roughly current levels of technology or greater), he needn't BE present to spy. It only takes a little technical expertise to take apart a phone, reduce it to the transmitter, receiving microphone, and battery, and hide this somewhere where it wouldn't be noticed. This could then be sent via a friendly yet unwitting staff member as, say, a gift for another young noble in the targeted family as a romantic gesture. The staff would likely be cooperative; who doesn't like cute kids having crushes? Or, if they are teens, a Romeo and Juliet type story? Even better if he sneaks out the window a few times to meet his paramour... or partner in espionage pretending to be a paramour. Of course, this would only work if it is one house he wants to spy upon; far more people will support a budding childhood crush rather than a budding playboy. That could also be an interesting sub-plot; them starting out as partners in espionage, then one of them starts developing feelings while the other doesn't, then it flips... but that could also completely hijack the direction you were planning to take your novel.

A third option is to plant listening devices at a time when he would actually be permitted into another wing. Say, a coming of age ball or some such where all the nobility are invited. The exchange of gifts could well be commonplace at the event, and he could hide some sort of device in the gift, or in plants, or... you get the idea.

In other words, if he doesn't have the technical capability to hack the system and create loops, his options are to completely evade the notice of the system or bypass it through remote devices, which can be placed directly by the MC or by an unwitting pawn.

 

[Don]

Speaking of Scanner scramble suits:

Programmable Clothes Are Going Commercial

Electronic clothing is the next frontier in sustainable fashion, as it removes the need to amass a large wardrobe. But will people buy it?

www.fastcompany.com

 

[Don]

Other tactics besides hiding your face behind a mask.

Hide your face behind a halo:

Filo Art "IRASC" - infra-red-anti-surveillance-camera

Zap a cam:

Camera Zapper