The footage is decisive’: Applying the thinking of Marshall McLuhan to CCTV and police misconduct

This article adapts Marshall McLuhan’s writings on mass media to ubiquitous and universal surveillance systems, looking at surveillance as media. The term ‘broadcast media’ is derived from an agricultural metaphor, a technique of planting. I argue that CCTV systems are an inversion of broadcasting: ‘harvest media’. Drawing on three case studies in which CCTV has been relevant to allegations of police misconduct, I explore how harvest media impacts on cultural and legal perceptions of evidence, and what can be known.

Time cumulative complexity modeling and analysis for space-based networks

In this paper, the notion of the cumulative time varying graph (C-TVG) is proposed to model the high dynamics and relationships between ordered static graph sequences for space-based information networks (SBINs). In order to improve the performance of management and control of the SBIN, the complexity and social properties of the SBIN's high dynamic topology during a period of time is investigated based on the proposed C-TVG. Moreover, a cumulative topology generation algorithm is designed to establish the topology evolution of the SBIN, which supports the C-TVG based complexity analysis and reduces network congestions and collisions resulting from traditional link establishment mechanisms between satellites. Simulations test the social properties of the SBIN cumulative topology generated through the proposed C-TVG algorithm. Results indicate that through the C-TVG based analysis, more complexity properties of the SBIN can be revealed than the topology analysis without time cumulation. In addition, the application of attack on the SBIN is simulated, and results indicate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed C-TVG and C-TVG based complexity analysis for the SBIN.

SAT-GRD: An ID/Loc split network architecture interconnecting satellite and ground networks

Since the satellite network plays an irreplaceable role in many fields, how to interconnect it with the ground network has received an unprecedented attention. However, with much more requirements imposed to the current terrestrial network, many serious problems caused by the IP dual-role exposed. In this context, their direct interconnection seems not the most appropriate way. Thus, in this paper, SAT-GRD, an incrementally deployable ID/Loc split network architecture is proposed, aiming to integrate the satellite and ground networks efficiently. Specifically, SAT-GRD separates the identity of both the host and network from the location. Then, it isolates the host from the network, and further divides the whole network into core and edge networks. These make SAT-GRD much more flexible and scalable to achieve heterogeneous network convergence and avoid problems resulting from the overloaded semantics of IP addresses. In addition, much work has been done to implement the proof-of-concept prototype of SAT-GRD, and experimental results prove its feasibility.

The documentary take

Interview on the ABC TV The Mix Episode 38

Top five science reads of 2013

It's been a great year for science books! Devoted sci-phile blogger George Aranda shares his top five science reads of 2013.