October 25, 2006
Smart Cameras for Industrial Security
From SecurityWatchInfo:
An article on how smart cameras can be used for industrial security, such as scrap metal theft, industrial-plant theft, frivolous injury claims, and the theft of of toxic chemicals, biomedical waste, and flammable materials. Its a good article on the added value of smart cameras. Here is one snippet:
Consider some common analytics that can be applied to an industrial security setting: Intelligent video detection can distinguish between vehicles and people and even limit detection to a specific direction, so when a scrap-metal thief climbs over a fence it will be detected, but an employee car leaving the facility would be ignored. Automatic detection of object removal can be used to limit detection to items that are of interest, whether it is the taking of a warehouse computer or a pallet of copper piping from a storage yard. Automatic detection of unattended objects can reveal when a box of product is tossed over the fence by an employee for post-work retrieval or alarm when a suspicious package is placed next to liquid propane tanks. Automatic detection of stopped cars can notify security when a vehicle stops for too long of a period in a prohibited area. Autonomous pan-tilt-zoom tracking, unlike stationary cameras, can provide automatic close-ups of a moving target for better recognition or real-time tracking of a camouflaged intruder's whereabouts.
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October 21, 2006
Gunshot Sensors in D.C.
From Washingtonpost.com:
An article on the ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology being in in Washington DC. Its funded by the FBI as a test case to see if gunshot detection technology can help reduce shootings.
A few notes:
1. You get an immediate response by police with ShotSpotter, unlike with video cameras that are often not constantly monitored by police.
2. It appears police officers trust and believe in the technology. As a result, they are responding to gunshots more often. This shows how technology can mobilize manpower.
3. Cost - the rollout of 48 cameras costs hundreds of thousands and it would cost millions to wire the entire city.
4. It doesn't say if there are any other possible uses of the gunshot detection systems.
Posted by rshah at 09:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Guidelines from the Constitution Project
From the Constitution Project : Liberty and Security Initiative:
I have spent a few posts detailing concerns with government abuse of surveillance cameras. The Constitution Project has put together practical guidelines for communities (this was done back in May 2006). They just released model legislation for governments. This should be invaluable to government bodies seeking to developing their own rules and guidelines for video surveillance.
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October 19, 2006
ACLU on NY Proposal for Mandating Cameras in Bars
From ACLU press release regarding NYCLU testimony:
The New York City Council took testimony from the New York Civil Liberties Union on the proposed legislation requiring cabarets and dance clubs to install video surveillance at entrances and exits.
The NYCLU argued the critical questions were:
- Does the use of video surveillance cameras deter crime?
- Do video surveillance cameras provide greater public safety protection than the deployment of police or private security professionals?
- What are the relative costs and benefits of deploying trained security professionals as compared with video technology?
- Will legislation mandating the installation of video technology have the effect of shifting resources from the employment of security personnel to the installation of video surveillance technology?
- Would this shifting of resources provide the optimum value for each security dollar spent?
The first answer by the NYCLU was that the research does not show that cameras reduce crimes. The second answer focused on the potential for abuse and the chilling effect of cameras. They provided three examples.
- The NYPD archived hundreds if not thousands of hours of surveillance images captured during the 2004 Republican National Convention. Some of these images, involving protected First Amendment activity, were published by the New York Times as an "unofficial archive of police videotapes" four months after the RNC.
- A police department videotape of a suicide that occurred/took place in the Morris Houses, in the Bronx, found its way onto an Internet site devoted to pornography and violence.
- A WABC-TV Eyewitness News investigation of the police department's VIPER unit featured City Council Member Hiram Monserrate, a retired police officer, who described observing police officers engaging in video voyeurism – peering into the apartments of public housing residents and focusing cameras on women.
The rest of the testimony focused on how legislation can ensure that cameras are not abused.
Posted by rshah at 07:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Baltimore - Cameras Not Useful for Prosecutors
From ABC2News:
Just a snippet from the article:
Police say crime is down about 15 percent in neighborhoods with cameras. But enthusiasm for the surveillance system has dimmed at the city prosecutor's office because many cases involving cameras have had to be dropped. Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia Jessamy said the quality of the images hasn't been what she hoped. She also said many of the arrests resulting from cameras are for minor crimes and small drug busts. For the most part, the cameras haven't been helpful in violent crime cases, she said.
Between December and July, about 40 percent of 600 charges resulting from cameras had to be dismissed, the state's attorney's office said, many because of insufficient evidence stemming from poor image quality and a lack of physical evidence. Problems arise when cameras are running automatically without a person to focus in on a crime, and the video only captures a fragment of what happened. . . . Even with good video, Jessamy said police still need physical evidence. "They're perceiving the cameras as the be-all and the see-all, and it's not," Jessamy said.
Antonio Gioia, a prosecutor for the city's narcotics division who has handled cases involving cameras, said they are a helpful tool, but he believes significant crime cuts will only come with more focus on job training and drug treatment. "They are tools in law enforcement, but the public should understand there are limits to what prosecution can achieve by itself," Gioia said. Gioia also has heard that criminals are just moving their business to parts of the city where there aren't any cameras, although it's not clear where they're going.
Posted by rshah at 03:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Assessing Pain in Infants
From Technology Review:
The uses for smart cameras are often focused on security, but there are many ways smart cameras can contribute to our society. This article focuses on research by Sheryl Brahman that uses facial recognition techniques to identify when babies are in pain. This is something that is very hard for humans to detect, but her preliminary research has shown that video analytics were more than 90% accurate.
Posted by rshah at 07:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 17, 2006
Cameras with Gunshot Detection in Cincinnati
From The Enquirer:
A nice article on what Cincinnati is doing to roll out a 100 camera network with gunshot detection and a fiber optic grid. Its going to cost millions and take a while. Hopefully it will work better than their previous attempt:
The city bought 40 surveillance cameras in 2003 as part of a pilot program in six neighborhoods that never really took off. The cameras were never useful, in part because they ran over the public Internet and were very slow, often producing "video" that was so slow that it looked more like single-frame still shots. Those cameras are no longer used.
They also have a nice pdf of how gunshot detection works. And according to Jose Cordero, director of police in East Orange, the gunshot technology helps reduce gun crime:
Jose Cordero . . . said his department bought a system in 2005 and heavily publicized the new technology in the media, particularly the neighborhoods where cameras were installed. The result is that gun crime in those areas is down 85 percent, he said.
Posted by rshah at 09:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Cameras with Gunshot Detection in Cincinnati
From The Enquirer:
A nice article on what Cincinnati is doing to roll out a 100 camera network with gunshot detection and a fiber optic grid. Its going to cost millions and take a while. Hopefully it will work better than their previous attempt:
The city bought 40 surveillance cameras in 2003 as part of a pilot program in six neighborhoods that never really took off. The cameras were never useful, in part because they ran over the public Internet and were very slow, often producing "video" that was so slow that it looked more like single-frame still shots. Those cameras are no longer used.
They also have a nice pdf of how gunshot detection works. And according to Jose Cordero, director of police in East Orange, the gunshot technology helps reduce gun crime:
Jose Cordero . . . said his department bought a system in 2005 and heavily publicized the new technology in the media, particularly the neighborhoods where cameras were installed. The result is that gun crime in those areas is down 85 percent, he said.
Posted by rshah at 09:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 12, 2006
Arguments Against Video Surveillance
Its rare to see criticisms of video surveillance that don't seem knee-jerk. Most of the analysis appears lacking. This has led me on a quest for finding eloquent criticisms of video surveillance (and one that is far from finished). I recently ran across two editorials/letters against video surveillance and here is what they believe are the key issues. They can be found at the Washington Times and the Tucson Citizen.
1. There was a right to privacy in public in the past, simply because it was unfathomable that every word, movement, and gesture could be captured.
2. Surveillance starts with terrorism and ends with cameras targeting a broad range of misbehavior and even political behavior.
3. Cameras are just another technical fix to solve an enduring social problem - crime. (The subtext is that cameras are not going to solve this problem in the long run).
Posted by rshah at 04:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 05, 2006
Virtual Fences for Security
From Security Park:
A story on smart cameras at the Port Macquarie Airport in Australia. The airport is using smart camera technology for intrusion detection and to monitor human activity in areas such as the passenger terminal, runway, and parking areas. One of the main uses is for perimeter security, which traditionally uses fencing systems that can be expensive. According the the security manager, smart cameras are easier on the budget and very effective:
Hall said that the perimeter intrusion detection feature within the QOLiT system was of interest to the airport, as high security fencing was not an option for them. “Leveraging off the perimeter detection feature within the VI Activity Detection system costs less than a tenth of what perimeter fencing would have cost. Plus you don’t have the up-keeping costs of fencing repairs and maintenance.” says Hall.
Using a 3D scaling tool within the VI Activity Detection system, users can easily create and preset invisible ‘trip wires’ and ‘barriers’ in the software. Should any human trespass the invisible barriers, even if the perimeter is a long way off in the distance, the algorithms can discern between the sizes and aspect ratios of objects regardless of how near or far they are from the camera. In this way, unimportant activities such as sudden changes in lighting conditions or movement of small animals can be ignored, regardless of where they are in the image.
It appears that the real power of video analytics is in its ability to keep what does need to be addressed and filter out what doesn’t, alerting only when someone or something seems suspicious. “What Port Macquarie particularly like so much about the QOLiT VI Activity Detection system, is that they are alerted to situations that of importance to them. They are getting about ninety eight percent plus accuracy on event alerting, which is what they wanted.” he said.
Posted by rshah at 10:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 03, 2006
New Cameras in Chicago
From Chicago Sun-Times:
The next 100 surveillance cameras in Chicago will be very different from their predecessors. The new cameras are just 15 pounds (compared to 100), unobtrusive (compared the flashing blue lights), and cheaper ($6,000 compared to $20,000). The new cameras can be easily moved and look like a streetlight, so they will be moved in response to crime patterns.
The story updates a previous story on new developments. The police department is still developing technology to allow officers to monitor cameras from their squad cars. Also the smart software is still being tested.
I don't know if the manufacturer is still RMS Technology Solutions. I assume these are IP cameras. I also don't have a picture. Hopefully, more information will be available soon.
UPDATE:
I also wanted to point out the statistics for the cameras in the Tribune story:
At locations where they have been in use for more than 180 days, "total reported incidents have decreased by over 30 percent," and narcotics-related activities by more than 60 percent, Cline said at a news conference.
"While the primary intent is to prevent crime before it happens, we also have been able to make arrests based on video captured by the cameras," he said. "In 2006 alone, [cameras] have directly assisted in 480 arrests."
Posted by rshah at 09:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Cameras in DC Not Helping Fight Crime
From nbc4.com:
This story is noteworthy because its unusual. In most new stories, the police department likes to tout the effectiveness of surveillance cameras. But in this story, they asked residents in Washington DC about the effectiveness of the cameras. Here is what they said:
Community members said the shooting happened within yards of the cameras, which were of little deterrent. "Children getting shot. Every night it's something around here. But, they only have two cameras, and it's a whole community," said one resident. "You know, I think people are really ignoring the cameras. They just act like they don't care. They just don't care," said another resident.
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