January 27, 2006
Surveillance TV Series
From Security Sales & Integration:
The creator of Cops is looking to start a television series called Video Justice. The show is scheduled to run on Court TV. The series will use surveillance footage to show how video surveillance aids the investigation and prosecution of criminals. This sounds like a great forum for showing off smart camera technology. No idea what footage they are going to show, but let Langley Productions (and me) know if you got interesting footage.
Update:
Peter over at Public Eye points out that the web site Caught-on-Video has lots of surveillance footage (but not much for fans of smart cameras).
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January 26, 2006
Uses for Cameras Other Than Security
From Security Park:
A pitch by ADT notes three different use of cameras other than crime prevention. This is a useful followup to an earlier post discussing regulating the use of cameras for crime prevention.
Employee Productivity Monitoring can significantly impact employee behavior and improve compliance to company policies and procedures. A popular fast food chain recently introduced video monitoring at a franchise, which helped identify and correct employee training issues and staffing inefficiencies. The result was a 35% improvement on customer time spent in line.
Customer Service Information gleaned from video surveillance often leads to a better customer experience. For example, retailers can review video and determine that additional registers are required or certain employees are not engaging customers in the friendliest manner.
Compliance Video monitoring technology can help improve compliance in the food industry, where quality assurance procedures are critical. From how raw food is handled to how final products are packaged, remote video monitoring integrated into a plant's systems can provide assurance that industry regulations, sanitation and safety criteria are being followed.
Update:
Peter over at Public Eye points out other uses for cameras including construction monitoring, marketing, and remote telepresence. Check his web site to see actual footage.
Posted by rshah at 05:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 25, 2006
Smart DVRs
From CNET News.com:
Startup 3VR Security is offering software that will analyze footage from cameras. Their software/hardware acts as a DVR that can store and analyze video data. It processes archived video footage and breaks the footage into scenes. It then becomes possible to search by time, camera, person, or triggered alert. The person is interesting because once the software identifies a person, it can then search the footage to find other instances of the same person. This sounds very cool!
The cost is around $1,000 per security camera.
Update:
3VR is hot. The NY Times has a story on smart cameras that features their technology. Nothing new in the story but a nice description of how smart cameras and 3VR's technology can improve surveillance systems.
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January 18, 2006
ANPR in the States
From Inland Valley Daily Bulletin:
A short article on the use of ANPR in Rancho Cucamonga. The ANPR is by Remington-Elsag and is mounted on the roof of an ordinary patrol car. It is capable of scanning hundreds of license plates while moving at 75 mph without any human intervention. The article doesn't give the price but looks to be in the ball park of $12,000. The police are using it regularly and it has led to the recovery of a number of stolen cars. The system is also setup to flush its records every 24 hours.
Posted by rshah at 01:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 05, 2006
Data Protection Act and CCTV Regulation in the UK
A recent post over at Peter at Public Eye led me to the UK's code of practices for CCTV. I spent a few minutes learning about this topic and figure I would share it for others, since there is nothing like this in the US.
The UK has a Data Protection Act to ensure information is handled properly. It contains a number of principles. (These principles are similar to the principles of fair information practices). Data must be:
- fairly and lawfully processed
- processed for limited purposes
- adequate, relevant and not excessive
- accurate
- not kept for longer than is necessary
- processed in line with your rights
- secure
- not transferred to countries without adequate protection
To aid users with the regulation, the Information Commissioner has developed a Code of Practices for CCTV. There is a one page checklist that summarizes the requirements. Here are some of the requirements:
The controller is aware that notification to the Information Commissioner is necessary and must be renewed annually.
Cameras have been sited so that their images are clear enough to allow the police to use them to investigate a crime.
Cameras have been positioned to avoid capturing the images of persons not visiting the premises.
There are signs showing that a CCTV system is in operation visible to people visiting the premises and the controllers contact details are displayed on the sign where it is not obvious who is responsible for the system.
The recorded images from this CCTV system are securely stored, where only a limited number of authorised persons may have access to them.
The recorded images will only be retained long enough for any incident to come to light (e.g. for a theft to be noticed).
Recordings will only be made available to law enforcement agencies involved in the prevention and detection of crime, and no other third parties.
The operating equipment is regularly checked to ensure that it is working properly (e.g. the recording media used is of an appropriate standard and that features on the equipment such as the date and time stamp are correctly set).
The controller knows how to respond to requests from individuals for access to images relating to that individual. If unsure the controller knows to seek advice from the Information Commissioner as soon as such a request is made.
A quick read leads me to believe CCTV is seen as a tool for law enforcement. The regulation furthers this end, while protecting individuals from the arbitrary use of the surveillance footage. I am sure for American camera companies, the biggest issue is the restriction on third party usage. The requirement that the cameras only be used for law enforcement means that other uses of recordings, such as for marketing purposes, are forbidden. Otherwise, the limitations on camera usage seem reasonable to me. (But I am happy to be proven wrong).
FInally, we should remember that compliance is another issue. One small study over at Urban Eye by MacCahill and Norris found that only 23% of CCTV systems were in accordance with the Data Protection Act.
For more background on CCTV regulation see the articles by Taylor and Gras.
Posted by rshah at 10:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 03, 2006
LAPD Smart Camera Systems
From EWeek:
The article is a short case study on how the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is rolling out smart camera technology. The notable advances include a car outfitted with smart cameras and ANPR as well as a mobile facial recognition system to aid officers in identifying gang members in the field.
Now the LAPD is testing a patrol car outfitted with $25,000 worth of technology—including in-car video recording, facial-recognition software and roof-mounted license-plate-recognition cameras. Patrolling the streets and highways of L.A., this smart car uses infrared technology to scan the license plates of cars it passes on both the left and right. A computer in the trunk immediately runs the collected information against a database that is updated daily with plate numbers associated with stolen vehicles, felony wanted suspects and Amber Alerts. If a passed car is a match, the officers in the car immediately see the information on their in-car notebook computer, Gomez said. Working continuously for 10 hours, the cameras can automatically scan between 5,000 and 8,000 cars per day, depending on the level of traffic, he said.
Another system includes a portable facial recognition system:
Levesque refers to the Mobile Identifier—which is built by ViewSonic Corp. of Walnut, Calif., with software developed by Neven Vision of Santa Monica, Calif.—as a "traveling mug book." Levesque is the gang unit's expert on the Mara Salvatrucha gang. Knowing all the gang's members, he took the Mobile Identifier loaded with 1,000 mug shots into the field to see if it could identify gang members as well as he could. When a suspect is scanned with the Mobile Identifier, nine possible images appear in order of best match to worst match. Consistently, Levesque said, the device correctly identified the person in either the first or second position. Three hundred officers operate out of the Rampart district, and 12 officers work in the gang unit. Only two of those 12 are experts on a specific gang, Gomez said. Given the success of the test, "I can deploy anybody and make them a gang expert simply by handing them the pod," he said. "I've essentially given Damien's knowledge to officers who would otherwise not be able to make this arrest."
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