Something tells me that inappropriate zooming is the entire point of the camera...
In all seriousness now aside, inappropriate zooming or IZ, for lack of a better term, is definetly on the rise lately, and it is simply outrageous that cameras aren't built with any safeguards against IZ'ing, when we cleary have the means to provide such relief using off-the-shelf components.
As anyone who keeps abreast of the modest developments in Video Content Analysis knows, we have custom analytics for cross-a-line detection, object identification, shape detection, volumetric estimation, spectral composition and others even far more specialized.
How much trouble would it be to write rules for use with for the OI, SD, VE modules? It's an idea whose time has come. With these rules in place, when an IZ violation would occur, a dynamic privacy mask would obscure the most inappropriate pixels. An cautionary audible warning could warn a inexperienced operator of impending inappropriateness and issue a mild situation-specific reprimand. In addition, if it be desired, an alert would be generated to either LE or a supervisor indicating a situation exists requiring their immediate attention and/or action.
Also, there would be a disabling release mechanism (but logged of course), for those cases when tracking someone that is fleeing at a high rate, and an occasional alert can't be avoided, and anything therefore that would be tagged normally as IZ would be reclassified as justified Inadvertant Zooming.
What would it take for a project like this to get off the ground?