Detect Dummies in Cars November 30, 2005

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I hate toll roads. I’d almost rather walk or cycle, or something, if I wasn’t so lazy. Or tight. Then I heard about how you could reduce the toll cost by half by having more than one person in the car. Rather than opt for real, smelly people, I dusted off some old, hardly used, blow-up ‘friends’ from the closet (research) and I was ready to rock. But now geeks working for the wrong team have scuppered my dastardly plan. Smart, interfering brainiacs at Loughborough University have developed a camera called Cyclops that can detect the number of human passengers in a car. Yes, human. With a 95% accuracy in tests, Cyclops can measure the water content of skin from up to 50m away. Humans only managed 65%. The camera is being readied for the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland (pictured), because officials fear than when the toll system goes electronic, people might cheat by using dummies, mannequins or, blow-up, ‘friends’, to qualify for a discount. Can't fool those canny Scots when it comes to cash, eh? As you can see, I’ve moved to Plan B and installed a massive, mobile fog generator. Will let you know how it goes.

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