High-Tech World. Making presentation in English

2. High-Tech World

They are Watching You

In his classic novel 1984, which was written in 1949, British author George Orwell wrote about a future society where it is impossible to hide from surveillance by the government. In the novel, people are constantly reminded of the government's presence by the phrase 'Big Brother is watching you'.

The world of surveillance that was predicted by Orwell is already here. Public video systems are now used in many cities around the world. In Paris, France, for example, there are road cameras nearly everywhere to help control traffic and approximately 2,000 cameras on city buses to deter crime. In Britain, there are cameras watching streets and parks, public transport, stadiums and shopping areas. With more than four million cameras - that's one camera for every 15 people - Britain has more surveillance cameras than anywhere else in the world. In fact, some researches have estimated that most visitors to London are now caught on video 300 times in a single day.

So who's watching? The police, certainly. When it comes to catching the bad guys, a surveillance camera is a police officer's best friend. There is little a criminal can say when the crime he has committed has been caught on video.

Even when criminals are not actually caught on video, just the presence of video cameras can make a location safer. Hoping to deter criminals, some people put up signs that say 'Video Surveillance is in Operation' ever where no video cameras exist. However, how effective the cameras are at preventing crime is nor clear. Studies show that video surveillance has been successful in greatly reducing crime in some areas, but has had little effect in other areas.

Fighting crime hasn't been the only success for video surveillance. It has also been used to prevent accidents and even to save lives. One day in France, 18-year-old Jean-Francois LeRoy was swimming in a public swimming pool. While he was under water, he lost consciousness. The human lifeguards watching the pool didn't realise what was happening as LeRoy sank slowly and quietly to the bottom of the pool. Without help, it would have taken him as little as four minutes to die.

Although no human lifeguard saw LeRoy drowning, 12 large machine eyes deep under the water were watching and sending the images to a central computer. Just nine months earlier, a modern electronic surveillance system called Poseidon had been installed. Poseidon covers a pool's entire swimming area, and is able to tell when swimmers are not moving the way they should be. When the computer detects a problem, it sets off an alarm to alert lifeguards. Just 16 seconds after Poseidon noticed that LeRoy was sinking, the lifeguards pulled him from the pool. Poseidon has saved his life.

Although it is useful for fighting crime, many people are still concerned about public surveillance. Norman Siegel, an American lawyer, says that there has been a huge increase in video surveillance in public spaces without any real discussion about the advantages and disadvantages. He believes that people should be asked to vote on whether they agree or disagree with public surveillance.

Whether or agree with it or not, the fact is that we live in a world where surveillance surrounds us all.