Smart Cameras Blog

[From Red-light camera loses backer :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Transportation]

Schaumburg is getting rid of its cameras because they do not prevent accidents. Schaumburg is bypassing easy revenue, but doing the right thing by evaluating cameras on the basis of safety and not revenue. Read the full article, but here are some snippets:

Last fall, Schaumburg installed red-light cameras at the busy corner of Woodfield and Meacham, near Woodfield Mall. The camera system quickly recorded 10,000 violations, each resulting in a $100 ticket. But 98 percent of the violations were by motorists who didn’t stop before turning right on a red light, according to Schaumburg Police Chief Brian Howerton.

. . .

Meanwhile, Schaumburg police studied the 10 intersections with the most accidents and found that only about 15 out of 800 collisions were caused by traffic signal violations. The majority were caused by failure to reduce speed, Howerton said.

rshah Chicago, Red Light Cameras

[From colorblind | blogOV]

Bob Cuttings on over on blogOV has a bit of a rant on color detection in smart camera systems. I can’t judge the merit of his comments, but I think it is well worth repeating (It was so good, I copied most of his post):

The next time I attend a conference where that same company gives the same presentation showing how video analytics with color detection could have been used to search for vehicles and prevent events such as the Washington DC sniper killings, I’ll call them out. Using video analytics for color detection is viable in certain applications. But the way this “solution” is presented is just plain careless.

With any video analytic solution, it’s never just about the analytics. It’s about camera coverage…AND the manner in which cameras adjust to light changes…AND the lack of lighting for nighttime applications…AND the blue cast that seems to overlay many objects under certain lighting conditions…AND the sheer fact that customers underestimate the challenge of separating the white/grey/silver/light blue cars that make up 75% of cars on the road! Who has actually sold this and made it work?

This type of non-consultative, haphazard positioning of a solution does a great disservice to our market. Why do vendors continue to compromise our huge collective investment in R&D by making claims based on concept? Would you set up your company for such a customer support nightmare just to win a deal?

rshah Applications

[From Navy Pier triples number of surveillance cameras :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: City Hall]

Chicago has added 200 more cameras at Navy Pier, the result of a $4.2 million grant from Homeland Security. 40 of the cameras monitor the inside area, while 160 are outdoor cameras. The cameras replace 60 black & white cameras that were fixed. The new cameras can rotate and “pick out a face in a crowd six blocks away.” There is even a camera with analytics that focuses on the inlet between Navy Pier and the Jardine Water Filtration Plant. If the camera detects a boat entering the inlet, it will send an audible message, “Leave this area immediately. You’re subject to a $5,000 fine by the U.S. Coast Guard“. If the boat continues, a marine unit is sent to intercept the intruding boat.

The cameras have been operational since February. Thus far, the cameras “have already been used to catch at least one pick-pocket and nab someone who was damaging a store that had closed for the night.” This is far from impressive to me. It looks like the city is not pushing the cameras as a deterrence to crime, but as a way to later investigate crime. I assume they are pushing this angle, because they realize the limited deterrence impact of the cameras.

The article also notes facial recognition, but doesn’t give much detail. I am not sure if they are running software or just that the cameras have the capability to zoom in on facial details.

More cameras are also coming to “McCormick Place, Soldier Field and the Museum Campus, thanks to a $6.8 million Homeland Security grant awarded in 2007. Seventeen cameras — 11 of them infra-red — will cover the area from Oak Street Beach all the way to 3900 South. That’s because on flat land, there’s a visibility of one mile at night and two miles during the day, Gavin said.”

As for privacy, the city doesn’t acknowledge any concern. Their view is “Walt Disney [World] has probably been doing this for years,” said Ray Orozco, executive director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications. While there are differences between Walt Disney World & Chicago, they both are equally secretive as to how they utilize their cameras.

rshah Chicago

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a representative of William Kelly, who is the host of a Chicago TV show, Sportsaholic. Bill was mugged and beaten to the ground in front of his Gold Coast/Streeterville residence. He noticed some blue light cameras and was hoping they could help identify his attackers. After almost two weeks, Bill was finally able to review the tape. The camera was too far away and not at the correct angle to capture his attackers. This led Bill Kelly to characterize the camera system as wasteful. After all, from what he saw, the camera system was was not terribly useful.

As a scholar on cameras, I try to take a big picture view. This leads me to wonder how many others have had similar or disimilar experiences as Bill. How many crimes are solved by cameras? We don’t have this kind of data, because most police departments don’t collect it. Jeff Roush over at Fighting Crime From Above argues that we need more data on cameras. This leads him to recommend more data in the following four areas:

• Real time apprehensions
• Apprehensions based upon video or images
• Prosecutions based on camera evidence
• Effectiveness of camera operators

I agree with Jeff and I would urge everyone to try to push for the collection of this data. It is the only way we can move from anecdotes to a more through scientific understanding of how cameras affect crime.

rshah Chicago, Policy

[From BBC NEWS | Camera grid to log number plates]

The BBC is reporting that a nationwide system of monitoring license plates will be in place in a few months in Britain. The government is tying together various ANPR systems into one central computer. There are no limits on how this information can be used by police according to the article.

This will provide the police with unprecedented knowledge of its citizens’ movements. Just as governments can easily monitor all our activities online, the same is becoming true for real life.

Its only a matter of time until a similar network is setup in the US. ANPR/ALPR is a very useful technology, but is also has significant privacy implications that need to be addressed. I have previously mentioned the long term storage and sharing issues and the abuses with ALPR. These issues need to be addressed.

rshah ANPR, Policy

[From Alderman says he had this mural destroyed | Chicago Public Radio Blog]

Gabriel Villa just completed a mural in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood, to have it promptly painted over by the city. The mural below includes Chicago surveillance cameras prominently. The comments at the Sun-Times article are illuminating, with many people expressing opinions about the cameras, police, and Daley.

rshah Chicago

[From Red-light camera should capture right car with right plate :: Naperville Sun via Instapundit and Gapers Block ]

Consider the plight of this senior citizen who received a red light camera ticket for a car that wasn’t hers.

After many phone calls, insisting this was not her vehicle, nor was she anywhere near the location indicated, she was instructed to protest the ticket at the Daley Center.A protest filing fee was paid. Three appearances were required in traffic court. Each one became more frustrating than the one before. It seemed the protester was not innocent before being proved guilty but quite the contrary. It became obvious that no representative of the court believed the story.The third appearance finally got the court’s attention because the license plate was produced as evidence, and although it did match the numbers on the plate, it was not identical to the plate on the photo.After all the dust had cleared and the expenses were paid by this tenacious senior citizen, including time, parking fees, tolls as well as anguish and distress, the case was dismissed.It was dismissed simply because, after investigation by this lady, it was discovered that two vehicles registered in the state of Illinois can have the same identical plate number. The only difference is that one is a vanity plate.

This story is a marked contrast to the piece on RedFlex in the Tribune a few weeks ago. It described the process for ticketing cars:

Once through the lobby, visitors come upon a half-dozen or so violation reviewers, who watch every single 12-second video clip and still image that comes to RedSpeed showing a possible violation. Because drivers regularly trigger the cameras without a violation occurring—often by stopping just past the stop line or stopping abruptly after speeding—it’s up to the reviewers to determine whether they think there’s a violation.If they think not, the file gets purged; but if they believe a citation should be issued, the reviewers send the information to a senior reviewer. If that person agrees, the file gets forwarded to the respective law-enforcement agency, which decides whether to issue a citation.

This story points out a disconnect between the process of identifying a license plate and confirming that it matches the vehicle description associated with the license plate. Part of this is a technical problem. It was reported last year that the tollway Ipass cameras couldn’t detect vanity plates properly. Apparently, this is also a problem for red light cameras. The second is a bureaucratic issue. It is well known there is a problem with vanity plates. 25% of the plates in Illinois are non-standard. Why aren’t there measures in place to prevent this from occurring? Here is a graphic from the Daily Herald on vanity plates.

rshah Chicago, Red Light Cameras

[From Taipei Times - archives and Taiwan News and China-Taiwan News]

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin announced on April 8 that his government would spend NT$1.6 billion (US$50 million) to install 13,000 “intelligent,” high-performance cameras in the city. Of the 13,000 cameras, 1,500 will be high-resolution one-mega-pixel models. The city is replacing 12,000 existing security cameras.

Here are the scenarios for the smart cameras:

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) technology is so far advanced nowadays that it’s possible to search for certain actions in recorded video. For example, when investigating an ATM crime, police can set a search condition for “a person staying near a machine for longer than 10 minutes” and the system will find all video meeting the criterion.

It’s also possible to have the system to alert police automatically when a car matching a previously entered description appears in the camera lens, helping to solve car thefts more quickly.

The article notes there are still concerns about privacy and how footage will be used.

Asked whether the new equipment would mean a further erosion of residents’ privacy, Hau said that no one will be given access to the recorded tapes without a justifiable reason. He added that all the video footage will be recordings of activities on public roads and will not infringe on people’s privacy in their homes.

According to police executives, the new cameras, linked to a computer terminal, will be able to home in on suspected targets and will have the ability to detect cars thefts by reading the number plates of vehicles and sounding alarms.

rshah Other Cities

Lucas D. Introna and Helen Nissenbaum have put together a comprehensive look at facial recognition. The title of the report is Facial Recognition Technology: A Survey of Policy and Implementation Issues.

The report:

highlights the potential and limitations of the technology, noting those tasks for which it seems ready for deployment, those areas where performance obstacles may be overcome by future technological developments or sound operating procedures, and still other issues which appear intractable. Its concern with efficacy extends to ethical considerations.

For the purposes of this summary, the main findings and recommendations of the report are broken down into five broad categories: performance, evaluation, operation, policy concerns, and moral and political considerations.

Introna also wrote a more scholarly paper a few years ago on facial recognition titled, Picturing Algorithmic Surveillance: The Politics of Facial Recognition Systems.

rshah Applications, Policy

When a camera is used, there maybe certain parts within a camera’s field of view that need to be kept private. The most obvious is if a camera could see into a private area, such as a window or doorway to a house. If this occurs, the appropriate measure is to use masking, privacy zones, or blanking. This can be done physically, by limiting the camera’s field of view during the installation process. This can also be done by software, however, software creates a risk that “someone might, somehow, get access to the video prior to masking, or perhaps turn off the masking” according to Sightmind.

One example of software is Pelco’s window blanking system. It is capable of blocking of specific areas, such as open windows to satisfy privacy issues. “In Spectra III SE, you will be able to define up to eight, four-sided polygons, with sides of any length, and turn on the blanking at specific zoom ratios.”

I don’t know how effective these systems are in practice, but I think most police departments should be using some type of masking system when setting up cameras near residential areas. As a further measure, policy departments should also be keeping system logs concerning what cameras are looked at by what user and when.

Here are some images of masking at work:

rshah Policy