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MLB Teams Explore Using Cameras To Detect Maskless Fans at Games (bloomberg.com) 75

Posted by msmash from the new-normal dept.
The baseball season has started with eerily empty stadiums, but some teams are exploring high-tech ways to verify that people in the stands are taking health precautions, a possible step toward bringing fans back. From a report: Several Major League Baseball teams have held talks with a California startup called Airspace Systems that develops technology to detect whether people are wearing face masks, the league and the company said. The discussions focus on implementing the systems into cameras around the stadium to identify people without face coverings, with masks dangling from their chins or otherwise worn improperly. [...] A mask requirement at ballparks would likely stoke controversy. Such mandates at stores and on airplanes have resulted in violent confrontations between customers and workers. The use of software to analyze people's behavior on camera is contentious, too. Airspace's system reviews people's faces, but the results aren't personally identifiable, the company said. Still, companies collecting data on their workers or customers in the name of public health should be required to set up privacy guardrails around how the information is used, said Ifeoma Ajunwa, an associate professor at Cornell University who has studied the intersection of law and surveillance.
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MLB Teams Explore Using Cameras To Detect Maskless Fans at Games More

MLB Teams Explore Using Cameras To Detect Maskless Fans at Games

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  • Hotdog, not hotdog!

    • Actually, if you exempt people who are eating hot dogs, it could be a great way to boost concession sales.

      • They should seat taser the non-mask wearers. Otherwise if they make it personal people will get into fights.
        But then they need some way to tell if you are drinking a beer. Look for it in your hand? in the cup holder on the seat?

        https://tech.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org]

    • Exactly what I was thinking. How are you supposed to enjoy your beer, hot dogs, nachos, or whatever else you buy and eat at a baseball game if you have to have a fucking mask on your face the whole time? Are you supposed take it on and off constantly?
      Just televise everything on pay-per-view and have everyone stay home.

  • Piece of cake (Score:3)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @01:47PM (#60390261)

    Just change the old code

    IF lMaskDetected
        *put in Terrorist_Hooligan_List
          do nothing
    ELSE
      *do nothing
        put on Covidiot_List
    ENDIF

  • It could be the next thing. "Hi! I'm not wearing a mask! I'm on national TV!"

    • Yep, Anthony Fauci didn't wear his mask at a ball game and got his photo taken. And everyone knows that multiple pictures of Fauci wearing his mask on his chin is close enough that it was probably working. https://nypost.com/2020/07/24/... [nypost.com]

      • I'm told that the press crew at the white house take off their masks as soon as they think they're off camera, but I haven't yet seen clear evidence of that.

    • The anti-maskers would wear that like a badge of honor and their friends at home would support them for it. It's not as if this is a group that's afraid to have their views shown to others, especially on national TV.

  • Thanks COVID-19 For Showing The Truth (Score:3)

    by Vandil X ( 636030 ) on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @01:52PM (#60390307)
    The truth: People have far too much emotional, mental, identity investment into professional sports. COVID-19 has shown us that we don't need them or the worship of their players.

    Nanny-state things like mask-enforcement-camera is only going to discourage further attendance.

    I'm all for sports and physical activity, but perhaps not in the form of mega behemoth corporations spouting narratives and agendas.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Preventing the spread of a virus is hardly an agenda. Anyone who thinks otherwise peddles in bullshit falsehoods.

    • No one needs sports teams on TV, but they need us. Never forget that.

  • Require team themed masks, with RFID trackers built in.

  • Detection is not a problem (Score:3)

    by larryjoe ( 135075 ) on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @02:06PM (#60390365)

    This problem is not detection. Some non-maskers unintentionally fail to properly wear a mask, but many do so intentionally and conspicuously. My guess is that very few non-mask wearers are trying to hide the lack of a mask. As a result, detection should be as easy as using human eyes. If manual identification is challenging because only a small percentage of fans are not wearing masks, then that's a good thing.

    The much greater challenge is the policy once a non-mask wearer has been identified. Ejection? Fines? Bans? Would food and drinks while seated be allowed? If so, could someone claim to be eating or drinking for the entire game and therefore allowed to forego a mask for the entire game?

    • Nail-head-hit. The same people who have to throw the non-mask-wearers out can do the detection by eyeball.

    • This problem is not detection...The much greater challenge is the policy once a non-mask wearer has been identified. Ejection? Fines? Bans? Would food and drinks while seated be allowed? If so, could someone claim to be eating or drinking for the entire game and therefore allowed to forego a mask for the entire game?

      Sorry, but we're still in the Knee-Jerk-Reaction step of this particular sub-clusterfuck. You'll have to wait until we get to the Double-Down-on-Stupidity step before we can ignorantly (not) answer these questions...

    • The problem is with the fucking IDIOTS that think we all need to wear masks, yet think going to large sporting events is fine.

      Wearing a mask is a risk / rate thing. If you believe in the need to cut the rate / risk, you should also believe in not attending a fucking baseball game. Of course, your post mentions nothing of that, just mad at "non-maskers".

      But no, it's just the maskless idiots, right? Not the other idiots gathering for no fucking reason. If you're increasing risk, but being a super pro-masker,

      • The problem is with the fucking IDIOTS that think we all need to wear masks, yet think going to large sporting events is fine.

        It's reasonable to question whether masks help at large outdoor gatherings, such as at baseball games. We don't have a lot of data to go on. However, we do have a few data points. Taiwan has been allowing fans into stadiums for a while now. Some games have seen over 10000 [focustaiwan.tw] fans. The curious thing is that the original policy was to require masks for all fans. However, for the past two months, masks are only required when not seated. I don't understand the reasoning behind that policy. Nonetheless, the

        • Right, Taiwan, which has almost no cases. Good example.

          And yup, we definitely can't guess what will happen without data. We should probably launch a study with masked versus unmasked baseball games. And of course, a control of not going at all. I wonder which will spread less covid? Well, I guess we don't know, we don't have the data!

          How you don't understand seated baseball fans versus crowds moving around is beyond me. Have you just never been to a large event?

          You passive aggressively mask your emoti

    • and bought concessions I don't think Jeff Bezos could afford to eat and drink through an entire game.

      Maybe if you took very tiny bites...

  • MLB trashed its brand on opening day with mindless politics and it thinks it should be focusing on unmasked fans?

    More rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship.

  • It kills covid. The virus literally dies of bordome.

  • In a country full of obese fucks, there's going to be enough COPD sufferers they'll need separate seating and access for people who can't comfortably wear a mask.

    You could just try treating the people who refuse out of ideological reasons to get the same access and seating. If the numbers are small enough it will avoid some needless drama.

    • In a country full of obese fucks, there's going to be enough COPD sufferers they'll need separate seating and access for people who can't comfortably wear a mask.

      You could just try treating the people who refuse out of ideological reasons to get the same access and seating. If the numbers are small enough it will avoid some needless drama.

      Taking this further, you could just have a plague section with separate entrance/exit, washrooms, etc. You could skip any regular cleaning or sanitization in that section, and maybe even do away with pesky safe food handling rules in the plague section concessions. Why should the person making your hot dog wear a mask and wash their hands if you won't?

      Keep the majority of responsible folks safe and let the idiots play Darwin with their families completely unfettered by basic hygiene.

  • You need enough people to do something about non-maskers once identified. While this small army is walking up to non-maskers, they can be looking around for more. The extra technician and support labor for AI will probably be greater than adding a couple of more enforcers.

    Perhaps this is merely a test-bed for wider use? Otherwise, it doesn't add up.

  • As we have seen in other cases, you can simply add a little face paint and the facial recognition fails. https://www.codastory.com/auth... [codastory.com]

    No face detection, no mask detection. Lots of fans love to paint their faces - if it defeats the MLBig Brother, even better.
  • Better than nothing, but I don't think masks work nearly as well as everyone seems to think. Ask any infected nurse how they feel. And what about the facial gaps? And our open eyeballs?

    • The masks that most people wear are to help stop the spread of the virus and not so much to protect the wearer. The person wearing the mask gets protection by having everyone else wearing a mask. When everyone maintains the responsibility then everyone benefits. It's the selfish people claiming their "rights" not to wear a mask that are going around spreading the virus and getting new people infected.

      The masks that medical people wear are different and are made to prevent infections. They are sealed and are

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kackle ( 910159 )
        The "95" in "N95" means "percent filtered" [honeywell.com]. So even these masks aren't perfect. Avoiding where (infected) humans have been is perfect. I just think we're relying on masks as protection when we should be relying on human avoidance.
  • Maybe they could use those cameras to catch sign-stealing?
  • Cameras in the stands what could possibly go wrong?
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Way to go MLB! It's bad enough that I have to buy a ticket to watch political propaganda and be accused of racism with the sports entertainment I came for. Now, you think you should use high technology to spy on me and identify me for the mask police. I'm sure your attendance numbers will fall like a rock, dudes. They haven't been doing so well for years now, anyway, and this will put the last nail in your coffin. So long, it's been good to know you.

    • It's bad enough that I have to buy a ticket to watch political propaganda and be accused of racism with the sports entertainment I came for.

      If being reminded that racism is fucked up makes you uncomfortable, then good- it's working. I'm 100% serious.

      Protests are SUPPOSED to be messy and make you feel uncomfortable. They're SUPPOSED to be inconvenient and disrupt things. You're not supposed to like it.

      Because if you did then it wouldn't mean shit. No one ever got their civil rights by saying "please".

      If history is any guide, then you gotta fuck shit up before anyone will listen or any changes take place. Don't take my word for it, look at the e

  • weed in the 80s (Score:3)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @06:40PM (#60391647)
    Back in the 80s it used to be common to smoke a joint during a Padre game. Then they put people with binoculars in places where they could see a large part of the stadium, and have the evening news cover teams of cops busting fans smoking the devil's weed in the stadium. That's about when my friends and I quit going to games. Not because we smoked pot, but the whole thing just felt creepy.

    This is the modern version of that crap.

  • Just get a few really good paintball gamers and give them sniper-style rifles. Post them up in a good vantage point and let them plink people who aren't wearing a mask.

    If you don't wear a mask, it's open season on you. Each sniper gets 5 rounds per minute max after an initial warning shot.

    "But wait!" you say, "What about all the innocent people around them who might get hit by accident?"

    Well, all those innocent people around that person will know that they might be the one to catch a stray round, and they'l

    • Except there is a small minority of people that have a legitimate reason for not wearing a mask.

      But then this would be all about money as has all decisions by MLB. There was no logic in how they set up this current season by having COVID-19 infected players and other support team members criss-crossing the US to spread their virus. Thankfully the Canadian federal government didn't grant them an exemption to all Toronto tp play their home games in Canada.

      The people whom are able to wear a mask but claim it's

      • Except there is a small minority of people that have a legitimate reason for not wearing a mask.

        If their health is so precarious that they can't wear a mask then they have no business wandering around in public or going to a ball game.

        Also, if they're unable to protect the health of those around them by wearing a mask, why should that entitle them to special treatment? Why must the vast majority be put at risk because of their niche health issue?

  • Entire swaths of games are being canceled because teams are coming down with Covid-19. Yea, seems like a perfect time to discuss letting fans in.

  • But they can't use cameras to, I dunno, validate decisions made in the game?!

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