While I am sympathetic to your line of reasoning, I would like to point out that most people are massively underestimating what computers (and by extension computer aided surveillance) can do.
For example, people are still regularly amazed when I show off Google Translate’s augmented reality mode, whose technology is nearly 8 years old now.
Other tech demos I have seen include:
• Wall penetrating radar using ambient WiFi to do pose detection
• Remote sensing of pulse and breathing from RGB video
• Audio recovery from normal speed (sans audio channel) RGB video footage by taking advantage of the rolling shutter
• Lip reading to the level that specific speakers can be isolated or removed from the audio stream of a clip
For example, people are still regularly amazed when I show off Google Translate’s augmented reality mode, whose technology is nearly 8 years old now.
Other tech demos I have seen include:
• Wall penetrating radar using ambient WiFi to do pose detection
• Remote sensing of pulse and breathing from RGB video
• Audio recovery from normal speed (sans audio channel) RGB video footage by taking advantage of the rolling shutter
• Lip reading to the level that specific speakers can be isolated or removed from the audio stream of a clip
• Non-voice audio isolation/removal, e.g. guitar