On 27 aug, Steven M. Bellovin wrote: > Finally, the transponders may not matter much longer; OCR on license > plates is getting that good. As has already been mentioned, the 407 > ETR road in Toronto already relies on this to some extent; it won't be > too much longer before the human assist is all but unneeded.
We are already there. The London congestion charges are as far as I know completely based on OCR. The same goes for the congestion charge in Stockholm. In Stockholm they initially gave out transponders but they have stopped doing that, probably because the OCR technology is good enough. I think that the primary reason they are going for systems like that is that it is much cheaper to install and run than distributing a lot of transponders or building and staffing toll-booths. The tracking capabilities is merely an added bonus. In Göteborg they have a system with cameras which looks at license plates at different locations and through that measure how long it takes to drive certain routes. This system is still under construction but there are some information billboards where they show the current driving time to various targets. They say that they mask out the last digit of the plate and destroy the information after a short while, but who knows. /MaF -- Martin Forssen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Development Manager Phone: +46 31 7744361 AppGate Network Security AB --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]