Over the last year, I have been reading about security robots being introduced in public places and have seen them exhibited at shows, CES, etc. Knightscope is one such company.

However, I have to tell you that even for someone like me who embraces technology, it was a surreal moment seeing this robot at my local mall in Seattle. Here are some impressions, observations and thoughts:

1. Felt extremely intrusive: there is a live video feed into a central control center, as well as photos being constantly taken. This particular unit was the test unit so I met with the person installing it and got to play with it a bit. It streams video and photos constantly. Of you, your car, where you might have shopped (shopping bags). It roams through the isles and identifies odd instances. What is odd? What should be video taped?

2. It can be clearly connected via the central monitoring station to the police station. How involved is the police station?

3. Image recognition will be a key part of this process over time. Right now it is designed as real time monitoring, but it can image scans of license plates, faces, etc.

4. Moves very awkwardly. What happens when it hits a pothole or gets stuck? As this is moving right behind the parked cars and gets stalled, the person can not move out. How can it operate on elevations (up or down) or sharp turns?

5. Will Knightscope have enough staff to deploy on site as soon as the robot sees an odd occurrence? Or will the local PD be responsible for following up? How will this impact the PD?

6. And many other questions which I discussed with the local knighscope engineer who was testing the unit in the mall. We ran out of time and some of my questions were left unanswered, and frankly my questions made the guy pause and think: “Is she worried about my company, in this case Knightsope, intruding on her privacy?

Yes, in fact my main question was who gets what data (video, pics, sound, etc) and what is done with it? Who has access to this data? Should there be a sign upon entering the parking lot which reads: ” This lot is patrolled by our new robot, Knightscope. Note that upon entering you may be on video, your car information may be on video, etc. Enter if you agree -else please got to lot Z.” Should I not be notified appropriately?

We live in a world where our personal data is compromised knowingly (what we give for free to social media) and unknowingly (data breaches, etc). Clearly my GPS provided by my mobile career can trace my car location to the parking lot, but what if that is where I would like the monitoring to end? Do I want the Knightscope database to tag when I entered, how long I stayed, what the make and model of my car is, my license plate, upon returning what shopping bags I had in my hand, etc, etc. ? Can this data be sold to 3rd parties to sell me products, etc or give consumer behavior data to anyone interested?

We know that there are video cameras at many locations around us. In the parking lot, malls, elevators, etc. Perhaps seeing Knightscope in action made me think about the extent of intrusion that could happen. Will it work? Will it protect consumers from theft? Will the balance be for the good, vs the bad? What do you think?

Disrupt | Innovate | Lead

(First image via Knightscope)