Cities turning to technology to combat graffiti
Posted May 31st 2007 7:14AM by Donald Melanson




Reuters reports that cities in the U.S. are increasingly turning to high-tech tools to go after those spreading graffiti across town, although the systems being used aren't exactly as complex as you might think. One such system, from Los Angeles-based Graffiti Tracker, simply employs a digital camera with a built-in GPS tagging feature, which is used to snap a picture of and record the location of a piece of graffiti before it gets painted over. The graffiti then get analyzed and added to a database, which police can use to track those creating it and use as evidence in cases against them. While that simplicity has apparently proven to be effective so far, we can't help but think that the cities would benefit even further by putting some graffiti-patrolling policebots on the street to catch 'em in the act -- but we're sure that's only a matter of time.