Smart Cameras Blog

From Tech-Faq.com:

They have a definition for smart cameras, which is a starting point.

Smart cameras refer to the new-generation surveillance cameras with behavior-filtering capabilities; they are linked to software that can help the camera identify suspicious behavior. Thus, the person in charge of security need only look at videos when smart cameras send him an alert. This minimizes lost man-hours on monitoring perfectly normal activities and facilitates timely emergency responses.

Here are my quick problems with the definition. First, it focuses too much on behavior analysis rather than all the possibilities with video analytics. Second, it neglects other types of sensors that may provide useful information. But it is way better than the wikipedia, which only notes smart camera and nothing about smart cameras and a vague definition of video analytics.

rshah General

From Officer.com:

Chicago recently purchased a $2.1 million helicopter (with homeland security funds).

The new chopper has all of the bells and whistles, including night vision instrumentation that allows officers wearing night-vision goggles to see in the dark; a gamma radiation detector that could be used to locate dirty bombs; and a LoJack stolen vehicle detection system. It’s also equipped with a special map system, powerful video cameras that can downlink pictures to Chicago’s 911 emergency center and a searchlight.

rshah Chicago

From FCW.com:

A nice article on smart cameras. It discusses the role of video analysis software used by the Halifax Port Authority (vendor is PureTech Systems) and the San Francisco airport (vendor is Vidient). It also gives a sensible use for smart cameras:

The airport spent about $30,000 for software that sounds alarms if it detects someone trying to bypass security via the exit lane for arriving passengers. “Many airports use a person to watch this lane, but we felt it was the best use of our resources to simply automate the monitoring job,” Short said.

As well as spill-over benefits of cameras:

Video software can also assist with forensic analysis after an incident occurs. Of the three incidents that have triggered alarms since the Rapid City Regional Airport installed motion-detection software in 2006, one involved a passenger who ignored alarms and continued to the boarding area. The video record of the event was a major piece of evidence for the U.S. attorney who prosecuted the breach.

Dilip Sarangan of Frost and Sullivan chimes in:

the market faces challenges in reaching that size. For one thing, the accuracy of analytical algorithms must improve. “This is still very, very much an emerging technology,” Sarangan said. “Only in the last year or two have we started to see companies actually implementing these solutions so they could be used as a complete security solution.”

rshah General, Vendors

From Earthtimes.org:

North Chicago has deployed four Sony surveillance cameras to fight crime.

Each unit is marked with a blue light to indicate its presence. Officers manipulate surveillance equipment from remote locations through the use of the computers in the squad cars. The equipment can also be controlled at city hall.

“The camera software alerts the city of irregular activity,” said Deb Waszak, Chief of Staff. “For example, if three people congregate on a specific street corner, the software will send a visual alert to the dispatch center and squad cars.”

North Chicago authorities said criminal activity declined in the areas of camera deployment including an 80 percent decrease in loitering, 63 percent decrease in criminal damage, 35 percent decrease in burglary, and a 33 percent decrease in drug related offenses.

Funding for the project was provided by an AT&T Foundation grant.

rshah Chicago

From RFID Update:

An interesting use of RFID, bar code readers, and cameras. These systems are linked together so:

When the bar code label on freight is scanned to record a move, the RTLS tag sends a signal over the legacy WiFi network to the video surveillance system. System software quickly calculates the tag location and directs an appropriate camera to record the activity occurring there. Shipment information from the bar code scan is recorded with the transaction location, with a marker to enable easy retrieval of the video record.

This integration allows a warehouse to easily display camera footage of a package. The old approach (which required viewing multiple camera footage by hand) would take days to complete.

rshah Applications

Inspired by the Cincinnati Post:

Its something sociologists have long recognized, but its talked about very little. When cameras go up in one area, some crime may just move to another area. The term for this is displacement.

“We’ve never really gotten anything useful from them,” said Cincinnati Police Capt. Kimberly Frey. With hopes that they would be a boon for crime-fighting, the city first installed video cameras in 1998. By 2000, their utility was already in doubt. A review by the University of Cincinnati that year found the devices accomplished little beyond shifting criminals out of areas under the lens into unwatched spots, where they resumed their illegal activities.

While the police captain is shaking his head, the academic review provides some key insights. Some of results of the study were published in Security Journal by Mazerolle, Hurley, and Chamlin (I believe the Cincinnati study was done for David Hurley’s dissertation):

Our study of CCTV in Cincinnati found that surveillance cameras create somewhat of an initial deterrent effect in the month, perhaps two months, following implementation. We conclude that erecting signs to notify people about the cameras could possibly increase the level of deterrence of CCTV. Signs about CCTV cameras in operation would also address some of the fairness issues raised by civil libertarians. We also suggest that shifting CCTV cameras around on a frequent basis could solve two dilemmas: first, it would increase the number of hotspots under surveillance, and hence remove some of the inequities observed in CCTV deployment; second, short and periodic, as opposed to permanent, deployment of CCTV cameras would capitalize upon some of the initial deterrent effects of the cameras that are observed in our data.

The recommendations seem solid to me and should be considered by those deploying cameras. (And this shows the value of allowing academics to study the deployment of crime fighting technology).

**UPDATE** SORRY FOR THE DOUBLE POSTING – I posted this last year, but for some reason there was still a draft on my computer

rshah General

From Chicago Tribune:

CTA buses will be transmitting video wirelessly soon. (I wonder if anyone will be able to hack into the footage or whether it will be publicly available). The transmissions will eventually be viewable within patrol cars and the 911 center.

Last month after a gunman opened fire on a CTA bus, killing a Julian High School student, police looked at video tapes to identify a suspect. The technology now being installed would use the same cameras on buses to capture and transmit video images in real time.

Part of the program involves software “to analyze video scenes from buses and rail stations and to issue alerts about activity that might be of interest.”

The CTA is also improving radio communications for tracking buses, so within 18 months people can go online and find out when a bus will arrive at a particular stop.

rshah Chicago

From Economist.com :

A great article on crime in big cities, including Chicago. Its a must read, especially for those following crime trends in the cities and the impact of surveillance technology on crime. The article is based on the research of Wesley Skogan, a criminologist at Northwestern University. Here are some quotes from the article on the methods that help to reduce crime:

The big cities’ methods may sound obvious, yet they are surprisingly rare. Many police forces are not divided into neighbourhood units. Oakland’s struggling force, for example, is organised into three daily shifts, or “watches”, which makes it hard to hold anybody accountable for steadily rising crime in a district. Even when smaller police forces track emerging hot spots, they often fail to move quickly enough to cool them down.

. . .

However shrewdly the cops are deployed, they might not have cut crime so dramatically if social trends had not also been moving in the right direction.

The most obvious change is that, thanks in part to high property prices, all three cities are shedding young people. Together they lost more than 200,000 15-to 24-year-olds between 2000 and 2005. That bodes ill for their creativity and future competitiveness, but it is good news for the police. Young people are not just more likely to commit crimes. Thanks to their habit of walking around at night and their taste for portable electronic gizmos, they are also more likely to become its targets.

Another change is that poor Americans have been displaced by poor immigrants—who, as studies have repeatedly shown, are much better behaved than natives of similar means. This trend is symbolised by the disappearance of blacks. Roughly half of America’s murder victims and about the same proportion of suspected murderers are black. In five years America’s three biggest cities lost almost a tenth of their black residents, while elsewhere in America their numbers held steady.

The key issue for this blog is what is not mentioned in the article, surveillance cameras. In fact, in a draft article on Wesley Skogan’s web site, he specifically notes that there is no evidence of the effectiveness of smarter police techniques, such as cameras. (I have known about this article for a while, but decided to hold this back until Skogan was ready to go public – I will leave to the reader to find the actual article).

This is a clear slap to the face of Chicago’s PR machine for cameras. Once again cameras are found not to reduce crime. Nevertheless, Chicago will undoubtedly tout the efficacy of the camera network on questionable and publicly unavailable data.

rshah Chicago, Crime, Policy

More than 40,000 sets of number plates were stolen in 2006, a rise of almost 25%, according to police estimates.

Acpo wants a central issuing body for the registration numbers, and all cars to have tamper-proof plates fitted.

rshah ALPR, Policy, Red Light Cameras, Traffic Congestion

From Washington Technology:

Boeing is starting to test a camera system this week as part of the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBI-Net). A 28 mile section that is a high traffic area now has:

nine mobile towers, each with radar, day/night cameras and other sensors. Each tower also has data processing and communications equipment to effectively distribute information to control centers, mobile units, agent vehicles and other law enforcement personnel. The information is processed into a common operating picture, computer application that provides a near real-time view of the location of suspected intrusions as well as the location of department personnel, vehicles and other assets.

. . .

Boeing sponsored an industry meeting day on May 30 attended by nearly 900 people representing more than 400 companies, McElwee said. The company has 55 requests for proposal for additional technologies to be deployed along the border.

“Project 28 gives us a demonstration of our approach and a test bed for incorporating improvements. The expanded team refreshes out technology, ensures low prices and gives us the capacity to execute on the much larger task orders that lie ahead,” McElwee said.

It will be interesting to see what useful technologies come out of this project.

rshah Applications