Developer Knightscope, Inc Website knightscope.com | Type Robot | |
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Release date 1k5 Prototype: December 5, 2013 (2013-12-05) | ||
Knightscope (the K5 beta prototype) is a fully autonomous robot, used to predict crimes in schools, businesses, and neighborhoods. Its developers stated that development was inspired by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and to prevent future crimes. It is 5 feet tall, and 300 pounds. The K5 detects crime using a variety of sensors including video camera, thermal imaging sensors, a laser range finder, radar, air quality sensors and a microphone. If the K5 detects abnormal noise and temperature change, or known criminals, it will alert local authorities. The K5 has been developed since 2013 by Knightscope, Inc., a Silicon Valley startup located in Mountain View, CA.
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A concern is that Knightscope will introduce another means of mass surveillance, a controversial issue.
Working Principle
The K5 is still in beta test. It will be placed in public places such as shopping malls and schools. Once in work, it will cruise at about 3 mph in the geo-fenced area and gather real-time on-site data using its sensors. The data includes the licence plates, facial recognition and people's movements. The K5 then analyzes the data through the analytics engine and use data sets from business and government as reference. After analysis, it determines when to alert the community and authorities about the concern. Once the alert is on, the K5 will turn on all its sensors, allow the whole community to review the data and provide real-time information.
Purpose
Knightscope, Inc. hopes the K5 will help security and law enforcement personnel detect trouble while preventing and minimizing public injuries and fatalities. The company's CEO William Li had a failed police car startup known as Carbon Motors. Li hopes to develop an increasing number of K5s that would collect and analyze data in public places such as shopping malls, school campuses, and alert authorities of safety issues in society. Another goal of Knightscope, Inc. is to cut down crime rates. William Li said, "Our aim is to cut the crime rate by 50% in a geo-fenced area, which would increase housing values and safety while lowering insurance costs."
Features
The K5 is a bullet-shaped and penguin like robot that stands about 5 feet tall. The K5 has twin panels of lights about two-thirds of the way up its body. There is also a small silver color flag of the United States on the left side of its body.
Mobility
The K5 has a maximum speed of 18 miles per hour(29 kph), but usually it moves at 1 to 3 miles per hour. It is designed to use mapping software to create a geo-fenced perimeter that makes it stay within one area. The K5 creates a point cloud to show a 3-D image of the surroundings in the geo-fenced area. The K5 also uses an ultrasonic sensor to detect objects in surroundings and movements of its wheels.
Sensor option
Knightscope representatives said on the K5 there "is an onboard sensor array that can see, hear, touch and smell its surroundings."
Privacy Issue
The K5 will be widely used in public places, thus people are concerned with their privacy. The K5 can take pictures and videos of people without any notification. It can also monitor people's conversation. People are afraid that their social figures will be damaged by the robot. Some don't trust the K5's ability to recognize the actual suspects. Jeramie Scott, a national security fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said, “Automated surveillance, facial recognition and license plate recognition in public makes us all suspects. The K5 could become like a cuter, less aggressive Terminator that kills privacy instead of people.”
Concern
People wonder if the K5 will protect them or actually spy on them. They also question about the K5's ability to prevent crime. Although it can detect suspicious activities, it can not arrest the criminals or stop an attack. Furthermore, the K5's speed is limited and it only moves on the plain ground. In other words, the K5 can not prevent crimes effectively. Another concern is mass surveillance. People feel they are under pervasive surveillance if there is a robot watching on them in public space. Marc Rotenberg, President and Executive director of Electronic Privacy Information Center(EPIC), stated that “Once you enter public space and collect images and sound recordings, you have entered another realm. This is the kind of pervasive surveillance that has put people on edge.”
Incidents
In July 2016, a Knightscope K5 which was deployed at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, CA collided with a 16-month-old toddler, bruising the child's leg and running over the child's foot. The Stanford Shopping center responded by docking all of its K5 units, suspending any further activity by the robots until the incident could be investigated. Knightscope responded, calling the incident a "freakish accident", and issued a formal apology to the family of the child.