A while back, there was reported a new law enforcement surveillance system which could automagically switch/integrate multiple data feeds into a single presentation layer — designed to automatically follow individual people or vehicles, as they pass from one camera/feed to the next. Think it might have been a new toy from Qinetiq. Sounds like their kind of thing — 3D maps with patches of realtime footage from CCTV, helicopter cameras, whatever is available, all integrated in realtime for officers in the field or back at C&C. Anyway. Can’t find it on Google, but there were some very CSI-stylee screengrabs (probably mockups). But hey. There must be a nice art project in trying to build a realtime 3D video of London just from the intersecting sightlines of all those CCTV cameras — the flipside of the Institute for Applied Autonomy’s camera-evasion route planner. If only it was possible to hook into all those feeds (as is possible to a limited extent via the Wired Shoreditch project).

Would be interesting to see where if there are any surveillance blackspots in central London. Doubt it.

After a long, long wait, the revised Pevsner London 5 — The East End is finally in print. My copy turned up from Amazon a couple of days ago. It’s a brick of a book, not exactly the kind of thing to take on long walks, which is kind of a shame, as that’s the best way to use these guides. Of the current editions, only London Churches is really portable: it’s a big shame that there isn’t an ebook (or even XML) version, which in addition to its portability, would open up endless possibilities for integration with mapping software, annotation, even simple hyperlinking for those of us who don’t really know a belt course from a block modillion. And the thought of community-based tour routes really appeals.

Anyway. I haven’t explored the depths of London 5 yet, but there’s a lot of old London around my area that’s going to get researched. I’m hoping to have more fun with it than The Times, whose review a couple of days ago ended thus:

So there I was disappointed, and I am almost never disappointed in The Buildings of England. In parts of this book, today’s Pevsnerians seem overwhelmed by the sheer scale of it all. Some of the spirit is missing. Next time: a touch less detail, please, and a touch more cavalier disdain. Because while the Buildings of England books were always meant to be objective, their great appeal was that they never really were.

…tonight. Beautiful over the Thames. Reading the encyclopedic The Moon: Myth and Image by Jules Cashford:

Some North American Indians see a cat in the moon, unravelling the wool of the waning days.