There is an announcement of the acquisition for Genex.
According the press release:
Founded in 1995, Genex has an established history in video surveillance sensor science. Its Surveillance Group provides innovative sensor and algorithm solutions that are small, tactical, low power and low cost solutions. Its surveillance technologies combine powerful algorithms, such as object tracking and image enhancement, with revolutionary wide-area, 360-degree sensors. These solutions operate in visible, near-infrared, infrared, and acoustic wavelengths. Within its biometrics technologies the 3D Facial Recognition Group develops tools for enhancing facial recognition. By leveraging the power of 3D, Genex enables existing recognition systems to perform reliably while advancing progress towards total 3D systems. The company’s tools allow for seamless integration of capabilities, such as 2D-to-3D face conversion and compensation for pose, lighting, expression, aging, and weight. Management believes that Genex expertise has particular impact within the DOD and Homeland Security market place.
rshah Vendors
A survey of security managers, systems integrators and service providers at the TechSec Solutions conference found that 92% of respondents say they’re already — or soon will be — acquiring Internet Protocol (IP)-ready devices, appliances and system components. But, 74% of respondents say information safety on the Web, coupled with a lack of expertise in integrating physical security systems with the enterprise network, are the two highest barriers to putting critical physical security functions onto the Internet.
So while video surveillance cameras, are now Internet-ready, it may be the case that information and network security aren’t adequate to protect sensitive security-related information on the corporate IP network. Link
rshah General
A story in the Sun-Times today about a mistake with Chicago’s red light cameras. Apparently, there was a moving violation, but the wrong car was sent the ticket. The article provides some nice background on the cameras which cover 20 intersections in the city. The vendor for the cameras is Redflex Traffic Systems. So far the cameras have noted more than 100,000 violations in 15 months. The cameras are designed to zero in the on the license plate of the violator. System operators are suppose to verify this process. The cameras take 3 still photos and video for every ticket they generate. This video is available if a ticked is appealed.
rshah Chicago, Red Light Cameras
“Gangs fear camera that focuses on guns” from the Times Online
The article has some details on the gunshot detection cameras.
The cameras are known as Sentri (Smart Sensor Enabled Neural Threat Recognition and Identification). They cost $32,000 each. They can detect a gunshot within 350m and zoom in on the source. Chicago has 5 of the cameras and will add 80 more this year. Los Angeles is also testing the camera system. (In LA, TV stations are bidding to fund Sentris, because the winner will be exclusive crime stories and footage of the incidents.)
The technology was designed by Theodore Berger, director for neural engineering at the University of Southern California and co-founder of Safety Dynamics. He used neural nets to train the computers for what a 45-calibre gunfire sounds like, while ignoring other noises such as a car backfiring. He has another project working on recognizing specific words such as “explosives” in a noisy environment.
He is funded by the Office of Naval Research in Arlington. They are testing a mobile version of Sentri. The project named Gun Slinger uses a Humvee allterrain vehicle fitted with a small “listening” mast; if it detects gunfire, vehicle-mounted machineguns swivel in the direction of the sound to help soldiers to aim.
rshah Chicago, Gunshot Detection
From the Sun Times:
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
The City of Chicago will expand its fiber optic network, due to a settlement from RCN Cable. This settlement cam out of violations by RCN of the city’s cable television ordinance.
RCN will let the city use a 388-mile fiber network for the next 75 years and to maintain and upgrade that network during the next five years. This is valued at $48.5 million. The resulting network expands the city’s existing 600 miles of fiber.
According to Consumer Services Commissioner Norma Reyes, “RCN defaulted in over a dozen cities, including San Francisco and Boston. … No other municipality has received the deal that we … were able to negotiate. … If they sell it, we still have the right to use this fiber. If they abandon it, it becomes our fiber”.
rshah Chicago
SmartCatch 2.0 has a new user interface allows for ease of use according to the press release.
Here is more from the press release:
SmartCatch 2.0 is available immediately through Vidient Systems, Inc., and NEC Solutions America, Inc. (NECSAM) who is marketing, selling and distributing SmartCatch worldwide through a partnership it formed with Vidient in September 2004.
. . .
Extending Vidient’s primary application focus — access control, perimeter monitoring and asset protection — the company has added a number of advanced new behaviors, significantly expanding the uses of SmartCatch. A sample of these new behaviors includes the bi-directional tracking of cars and people, such as passengers going the wrong direction in exit lanes at airports; and, the detection of objects of all sizes, inside or outdoors, that have been left unattended in secure areas, such as parked cars that have exceeded their allotted time in passenger loading zones at airports and train station.
. . .
With its new distributed architecture, the components of Vidient SmartCatch 2.0 now function more independently. This enables SmartCatch 2.0 to support significantly more individual, widely distributed cameras while still enabling central management of security policy compliance, administration and alerts. This distributed approach lets SmartCatch support up to 100s of cameras in a single CCTV network.
. . .
The software’s flexibility and scalability is also expanded through its new open hardware APIs. These new APIs broaden the range of security devices supported by SmartCatch 2.0, such as card readers, PDAs, mobile phones and pagers.
rshah Vendors
This story was carried by the Chicago Sun-Times
Los Angeles has long been known for its marathon traffic jams and Star Wars efforts to mitigate congestion.
. . .
Daley is in Los Angeles this week learning about that city’s highly-touted traffic surveillance system.
The Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control system is a network of closed-circuit cameras and traffic-detecting devices linked to a central computer that instantly adjusts stop lights at 3,000 intersections when back-ups occur.
. . .
“It has improved traffic . . . and at this point the technology might buy you a 30 to 40 percent reduction in road delay times,” he said. “Chicago, with its larger, higher-density downtown, might get a greater benefit.”
. . .
The biggest piece of Daley’s traffic control plan will rely on replicating the Los Angeles system, which can automatically change traffic signal times on a second-by-second basis when needed.
The system is set up so that if automatic responses don’t work, workers can call up any of the system’s 200 surveillance cameras to eyeball intersection problems and dispatch police or traffic officers, said John Fisher, assistant general manager of the Los Angeles department of transportation.
The system also includes street-side sensors that keep track of how traffic affects bus on-time performance.
“It works like a scanner. When a bus arrives a little late, it will automatically get an extended green light to make it through the signals and make better time,” Fisher said.
. . .
Implementing a new traffic control system will be an expensive process that will take years to install, but Huberman, who oversees the Traffic Management Authority, says he expects it will “significantly reduce congestion in key parts of the city.”
. . .
Currently, there are 2,900 intersections with traffic signals. Only 13 percent of them are equipped to be adjusted by a remote computer.
Traffic signals on Addison Street from the Kennedy Expressway to Wrigley Field, for instance, are controlled remotely from the Chicago Transportation Department control center when there is heavy traffic on game days.
…
The city already has 20 red-light cameras and 2,000 surveillance cameras — soon to be augmented by at least 250 and maybe more, thanks to a $48 million Homeland Security grant — linked together by a single software network.
rshah Chicago, Traffic Congestion
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