Glass
9th September 2011, 10:46 AM
So a shopping centre creates an app to help you find your lost car in the car park. You type in your registration number and the app shows you 4 cars. You then select the car you recognise. Cops to "buy in" to use system to find unregistered cars and criminals.
There's nothing wrong with this is there....
'Find my car' app can also catch crooks.
http://images.theage.com.au/2011/09/09/2614171/art_photo_westfield-420x0.jpg
After entering your license plate number a variety of cars are displayed. You then choose your car and the app tells you directions from where you are to your car.
Westfield's new app means you'll never lose your car in the shopping centre again - and police now have at their fingertips technology to track down stolen and unregistered vehicles.
Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney recently added to its iPhone app (http://www.westfield.com.au/sydney/iphone-app/) the functionality for shoppers to find their parked car by entering its license plate number. The camera used to take a picture of your license plate.
The idea behind it is that if a shopper forgets where they parked then they can find their car using the app, which also lets users find out the opening hours of each retailer, see special offers and search for a store's location in the shopping centre.
But Westfield said police could also use it to find stolen or unregistered vehicles. In a statement, NSW Police said it worked closely with security at Westfield Bondi Junction and utilised their technology "when required".
The technology was implemented about a month ago and has been integrated into the company's app, which Westfield's general manager of marketing, John Batistich, said has had 108,000 downloads.
The app is used by shoppers of all Westfield stores around the nation. But only the Bondi Junction shopping centre has a function in the app for finding cars by their number plate, which was added in August.
Mr Batistich said the fact shoppers could find their car using an app was an Australian first - and he would consider rolling it out in the other Westfield centres if the Bondi Junction trial was successful.
He said that one of the issues Westfield found in some of its multi-level car parks was that people lost their cars. The new technology integrated in an update of the Westfield app for Bondi Junction aimed to fix this.
The app meant you would "never lose your car again", he said. It also showed you the number of car spaces available on each level in the Bondi Junction car park in real-time, allowing people to view if there were spaces available before they left their house.
"Effectively when you drive into the centre our cameras in the car park ... identify the number plate," he said. "You then input your [license plate] number and it provides where the car is and it will take you there."More from article @ the Age (http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/find-my-car-app-can-also-catch-crooks-20110909-1k137.html)
There's nothing wrong with this is there....
'Find my car' app can also catch crooks.
http://images.theage.com.au/2011/09/09/2614171/art_photo_westfield-420x0.jpg
After entering your license plate number a variety of cars are displayed. You then choose your car and the app tells you directions from where you are to your car.
Westfield's new app means you'll never lose your car in the shopping centre again - and police now have at their fingertips technology to track down stolen and unregistered vehicles.
Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney recently added to its iPhone app (http://www.westfield.com.au/sydney/iphone-app/) the functionality for shoppers to find their parked car by entering its license plate number. The camera used to take a picture of your license plate.
The idea behind it is that if a shopper forgets where they parked then they can find their car using the app, which also lets users find out the opening hours of each retailer, see special offers and search for a store's location in the shopping centre.
But Westfield said police could also use it to find stolen or unregistered vehicles. In a statement, NSW Police said it worked closely with security at Westfield Bondi Junction and utilised their technology "when required".
The technology was implemented about a month ago and has been integrated into the company's app, which Westfield's general manager of marketing, John Batistich, said has had 108,000 downloads.
The app is used by shoppers of all Westfield stores around the nation. But only the Bondi Junction shopping centre has a function in the app for finding cars by their number plate, which was added in August.
Mr Batistich said the fact shoppers could find their car using an app was an Australian first - and he would consider rolling it out in the other Westfield centres if the Bondi Junction trial was successful.
He said that one of the issues Westfield found in some of its multi-level car parks was that people lost their cars. The new technology integrated in an update of the Westfield app for Bondi Junction aimed to fix this.
The app meant you would "never lose your car again", he said. It also showed you the number of car spaces available on each level in the Bondi Junction car park in real-time, allowing people to view if there were spaces available before they left their house.
"Effectively when you drive into the centre our cameras in the car park ... identify the number plate," he said. "You then input your [license plate] number and it provides where the car is and it will take you there."More from article @ the Age (http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/find-my-car-app-can-also-catch-crooks-20110909-1k137.html)