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Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2025)

261 points david927 | 1 comments | 23 Feb 25 23:00 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

What are you working on? Any new ideas that you're thinking about?
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mavamaarten ◴[24 Feb 25 07:09 UTC] No.43156614[source]▶
I live next to a school, so there's a low speed limit (30 km/h). Still, people drive like race drivers and the city hasn't ever responded to the residents' hopes of introducing a speed camera.

I wanted to have some data on how many people speed, the max speed recorded, that sort of thing. Things the city should be doing after many complaints of dangerous driving and people being almost killed on zebra crossings.

I have a doorbell camera, and by analysing the footage using OpenCV and some code, I can track how fast people drive if you see how fast they move between two known points.

Average speed: 46 km/h :(

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Apanatshka ◴[24 Feb 25 07:43 UTC] No.43156800[source]▶
Is that legal in your country? In mine (Netherlands) there are way too many people with doorbell camera aimed right at the street even though it's illegal to record a public space like that. Most folks are ignorant about it though, or think that surely the internet-connected gadget sold by some anonymous corporation won't be abused....
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1. mavamaarten ◴[24 Feb 25 17:18 UTC] No.43162131[source]▶
It's not legal where I live (Belgium), it can be legal if you have a driveway and only film your driveway, and if you declare that camera in some database. But since I don't have a driveway, it films the street, I am aware that this is not legal.

It's my personal decision and if I ever get fined for it, I will gladly pay the fine... with the money that my doorbell camera has already saved me. It helped me catch hit&runners that bumped into my parked car twice already, and the camera is now almost two years old.

It's not connected to the cloud, saves data locally, and only stores a couple of days of video. It's not very ethical to unknowingly film public spaces, I know. My lame excuse is that I personally think that catching people that damage my property with a camera is a lesser crime than damaging someone's property and running away. The sad truth is that living in a place where parents drop off and pick up their kids twice a day do not give two shits about others. Hit and runs happen every day here.