Art Thieves, Beware of Cellphones

Would-be art thieves may find their career goals stymied by innovative new uses for cell phone technology. In particular, according to a report today on TechnologyNewsDaily.com, camera phones are enabling the international database of lost and stolen art to be more quickly updated.

 

“Thanks to a new development from the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology IPK, the investigator can now simply take a photo of the art object with his cell phone and send it instantly to a central server,” TechnologyNewsDaily reports.

 

An image analysis system compares the picture submitted to the database, helping to identify objects on the basis of features like shape, outline, color and texture. Any matches are returned to the caller’s cellphone. This, of course, aids in the process of quickly dispatching law enforcement—which in turn increases the chances that stolen art is intercepted before it disappears for good.

 

Seems like a novel, and excellent, use of cellphone technology. What will they think of next?