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Suddenly drivers lost their anonymity and could be identified by the unique registration number the law required them to attach to their cars.

Doubtless there were at least a small number of those rich enough to afford a horseless carriage who objected strongly to a move that could have been seen as both a money-grab and an invasion of privacy. These days of course we accept and acknowledge that such a system is extremely important part of policing our roads and protecting the public interest.

Skip forward nearly 100 years and, according to TV3's news last night, we're about to see technology applied to further strengthen the effectiveness of the registration plate as a method of making our roads safer.

Apparently, the powers that be are considering the introduction of a powerful computer-based camera system that could act as an eternally vigilant traffic cop -- constantly monitoring our roads for offenders.

Think of it as the next logical step forward from the speed camera.

By placing/hiding these cameras around the country, authorities will be able to instantly spot unregistered or unwarranted vehicles by looking up each and every vehicle's plates on the relevant computer database.

When an unregistered/warranted vehicle is spotted on the roads, an offence notice and fine can be automatically generated and sent to the registered owner of that vehicle.

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So clearly there's a powerful safety benefit from such a system -- just as there were safety issues surrounding the introduction of registration plates all those years ago.

The benefits of this system as a crime-fighting tool go much further than just generating endless traffic offence notices and fines though -- indeed it could become a significant part of solving many other crimes.

If/when all vehicle movement is logged to a central database, it becomes trivial to identify all the cars which passed along a given route at a given time. So, when a bank is robbed and the offenders make off at high speed, the path of that car can be plotted in seconds using such a system.

Even if the crooks stop to change cars, the identity of the second car could be narrowed down significantly.

But hang on -- why are we even bothering with complex and potentially unreliable technology like that being suggested? Computers aren't going to be 100% reliable at reading number plates and unless the database is also going to keep billions of images stored at sufficient resolution to allow double-checking by human eyes, mistakes will be made.

Why don't authorities simply acknowledge that an RFID system would be infinitely more efficient and effective?

Why waste CPU cycles performing pattern recognition on a potentially muddy numberplate on a rainy or foggy night when RFID will work with far greater reliability and efficiency?

Could it be that the authorities are very much aware of the huge public backlash that the introduction of RFID would produce?

Civil Rights groups would be up in arms complaining and some religious zealots would doubtless draw the comparison with certain parts of the book of Revelations.

No, surely it's much better to pitch this new way of playing "Big Brother" as just an improvement on the basic speed camera.

But I say, if the police, LTSA, Government, or whoever want to track our movements and sting us for forgetting to renew the warrant then there's probably not a lot we're going to be able to do to stop them (history shows that they'll eventually get their way regardless of public opinion) so why not just do it as cheaply and effectively as possible?

Why not just issue everyone with new rego plates containing a built in medium range (100m) RFID component and be done with it

To use an expensive, cumbersome, error-prone and complex technology like that proposed rather than an elegant, low-cost, efficient RFID system perhaps shows just how far authorities are prepared to go to slowly extend their surveillance powers over law-abiding citizens.

What do you think? Should we go RFID and be done with it? Put up with the weaknesses and costs of the proposed OCR system, or just tell government to stop being so damned intrusive?

Have your say in The Aardvark Forums.

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