Sensors in Buildings
April 15th, 2008
[From 'Big brother' buildings offer less invasive security - tech - 09 April 2008 - New Scientist Tech]
An interesting article on the use of small cheap motion detectors within buildings. They can be used as an alternative to cameras in some areas, because they are cheaper and less invasive from a privacy standpoint. It is suggested that this technique could be used for security monitoring.
Here is a nice video of the system, Ambient Intelligence for Better Buildings (link to Journal article)
That’s really interesting. I have seen systems that track resources using RFID tags. The goal there was high value items such as laptops that tend “to walk away on their own.” However, I have never seen anything that so seamlessly integrated search nor have I seen something that does not require the object being tracked to carry a token to id (like in the rfid application).
My main concern would be the 154 sensors used for this office. With all those sensors, it could be quite expensive. On the other hand, in areas that are extremely security conscious, the ability to seamless track across an entire floor seems to be uniquely solved by this approach.
Thanks for sharing.
I think you are right John, the motion detectors are cheaper individually, but it would cost a lot more collectively.
The article says they used cheap motion detectors, so I figure $20 each for 150 detectors for a total of $3,000. While cameras would probably cost about $100 for a cheap wireless camera and you wouldn’t need nearly as many cameras.