A pilot to equip up to 500 London Metropolitan Police officers with Taser ‘s Axon Body wearable cameras has started in 10 boroughs in the UK capital today.
The small device has a 130-degree lens to capture video and can be attached to an officer’s sunglasses, uniform or head-mount; all ultimately in the hope that the footage they store can be used in criminal proceedings, and to dispute claims of police misconduct.
It works the other way too, though. Taser says that a recent study has shown that use of body-worn cameras led to a large reduction (60 percent in that case) in the amount times force was used by an officer.
“I believe it will also show our officers at their best, dealing with difficult and dangerous situations every day but it will also provide clearer evidence when its been alleged that we got things wrong. That has to be in both our own and the public’s interest,” the head of London’s Metropolitan Police Service Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said.
Unlike some other wearable cameras, the captured footage is sent via Bluetooth to a smartphone (iOS or Android) and then saved automatically over a mobile data connection to Taser’s cloud platform Evidenceom , and there are options for pre-capture too, to ensure that nothing is missed.
The Met Police will trial the tech for one year to monitor its efficacy, before deciding on whether to roll it out more widely. The cameras won’t be switched on all the time, but members of the public “will be informed as soon as practical that they are being recorded”, a spokesperson said.
Two response teams in each borough (Barnet, Bexley, Bromley, Brent, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Havering, Hillingdon and Lewisham) will wear the cameras as they respond to emergency 999 calls.
Read Next: Google Glass for cops: How Taser plans to bring wearable, real-time tech to the frontline
The best looking smartwatch at CES wasn’t even on display
Why would you come all the way to CES with a beautiful smartwatch, but not show it off? That’s a question we’ve got for LG and Audi now that Android Central has outed the company’s beautiful smartwatch.
The watch was found on an Audi representative’s wrist at the event and it’s not only unique because it looks great, but because it’s running WebOS. The software certainly looks better suited to run on the device than something like Android Wear would.
There isn’t much known about the LG Watch — it doesn’t even have a name yet — but the device was built as a partnership between Audi and LG for use with the company’s car and even has a dialer to make phone calls from your wrist.
LG purchased WebOS off HP after the company failed to put it to real use. If the company does end up releasing this, it’ll be the most watch-like smartwatch on the market.
➤ The hottest smartwatch at CES [Android Central]
Baidu’s Chromecast clone goes on sale in China for $32
Chinese search giant Baidu has officially released a HDMI TV plugin today that seems to be a clone of Google’s Chromecast. It is being sold on e-commerce site Jingdong for CNY198 ($32), spotted first by Tencent Tech , as the company steps into the hardware space to extend Web services beyond its traditional outlets.
Earlier this month, Baidu moved into the living room as it began selling smart TVs in China via its iQiyi business. Subsequently, it quietly announced the launch of three gadgets — a USB WiFi dongle, a wireless router and a TV dongle.
The USB WiFi dongle has already gone on sale for CNY18.90 ($3), while the TV dongle has gone on sale today. The router is yet to be rolled out.
Basically, the TV dongle lets users stream content wirelessly from their smartphone, laptop or tablet to the TV screen once plugged into the HDMI port. It supports DLNA, Airplay, Baidu’s BDPlay, as well as iQiyi content — so you can watch videos on your TV easily.
Baidu’s latest product is suspiciously similar to Google’s Chromecast, which was launched in July this year. Other than the TV dongle, Baidu has also been following in Google’s footsteps for a couple of other products — one of them a Google Glass-like wearable technology product initially code-named ‘Baidu Eye’. It seems like the Chinese search giant is going all out to replicate the well-received successes of Google to become a true China Google.
Headline image via Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images