Video systems can also be used to monitor specific aspects of consumer behaviour. Detailed analysis of tiny movements and gestures enables stores to optimise the positioning of goods and devise the most effective shopping itineraries. Video recordings of shoplifters can be used to build photo archives of suspects and persistent offenders. Currently, research is being conducted into software that can automatically identify wanted persons among the faces filmed in group scenes. Unlike human operators, surveillance machines automatically record everything in their field of vision.
Misinterpretation can have disastrous consequences.
Several surveys of systems installed in public places in France were published in 1995. They suggest the need to distinguish between two functions of video surveillance. The first is preventative and involves establishing a condition that induces conformity to required behaviour patterns. The other is repressive, producing its effects only after undesirable behaviour has occurred. The first function builds on long-established habits of discipline.