Smart Cameras Blog

[From No murder clues from police cam :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Chicago Crime]

Three teenagers were shot on Friday in Chicago (ABC in Chicago). In trying to find the suspect, the police noted that a nearby surveillance camera may be of use. In a post over the weekend, I pointed out how many of the local police officers don’t support the cameras. A couple of comments by police officers in that post pointed out the cameras have significant maintenance issues.

Today, it was reported the camera’s blue light was blinking, but the camera was not recording. Apparently, the camera was an upgraded first generation camera. (For more information on the various cameras – see this report by the CPD). The camera was not capable of streaming its recordings, because the “area does not allow for a wireless connection.”

With a little detective work using ClearMap, I found 6 cameras within a half mile of the inoperative camera. I know the city has a mesh network for its wireless, so I don’t understand why they didn’t have a wireless connection. A range of half a mile should not be a big deal.

Another explanation is that the city has not upgraded the camera to wireless. However, in previous reports and statements, the city has stated that all the first generation cameras were updated.

So what is going on? Either way, its disappointing the camera was ineffective. However, of more concern is the lack of maintenance on the camera network. The city claims that 95% of its cameras are working at any time. I would love to see records backing that statement. But even if this is true, it means in a 15,000 camera network that 750 cameras are down and need to be fixed. This is a lot of ongoing work. Can anyone (John?) provide a cost of maintaining a 100 outdoor camera network. This is a cost that cities adopting camera networks need to consider.

rshah Chicago

The March 2009 issue of Chicago has an article titled, “Can Cameras Replace Cops?”. It focuses the policing strategies of the CPD and the move away from community partnerships to a reliance on technology. They use a marvelous phrase – “geeks with guns”, to describe the new approach. One interesting nugget in the article is the recent use of video analytics or smart camera technology. Here is the example provided by Orozco, the commissioner of the OEMC:

authorities were trying to determine whether someone had buried something in a park. Using video analytics, they gave the camera system an “inject,” the image of a shovel, and had the system troll through months of prerecorded footage. (Nothing was found).

I was very deflated after reading this. This was the best example they could find! It seems hard to justify the expense of a technology for this example. Especially, when there are many ways/tools to bury something. It seems a hard problem to solve with video analytics. (Maybe the experts will tell me I am wrong.) Lets hope the city can find some better uses for the half million dollars spent on video analytics.

rshah Chicago

[From Second City Cop: Cameras Beat Police to Scene]

For most people, the debate about camera effectiveness on crime is a detached one, even for those in the business of using or selling cameras. However, there is one group that is highly affected by the cameras and frequently overlooked. In fact, I can’t remember any article that considers the view of everyday police officers (including yours truly). I recently found a blog that serves as an unofficial voice of the CPD. They have strong and articulate views on the cameras and their effectiveness. I am only quoting the contents of the original post, but the comments are 10x better.

This excerpt is about the new 911 system being tied to the cameras:

We’ll tell you what happens next:

• a rather high percentage of the cameras aren’t working;

• cops running from paper job to paper job can’t get there in a timely fashion;

cops in 200K mile pool cars can’t get to the jobs;

• victims are going to get dragged into gangways, alleys, garages and are going to get a lot more damaged added to their plate since cops can’t find them.

We will repeat what we’ve said before – a camera has never prevented a crime. And a camera has never climbed down off the pole and actually arrested anyone.

Crime may have moved around the corner, but criminals don’t fear cameras. The amount of data generated by these machines is impossible to catalog and store and the criminals know that no one is going to be running through a few thousand hours of film to find a cigarette seller or three-bag dope pinch. Cameras provide an illusion of police presence, but only the sheep are impressed. The wolves haven’t cared for a while.

rshah Chicago

[From City putting surveillance cameras to use :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Politics]

The city has upgraded its dispatch system so “call takers and dispatchers now see real-time video if there is a surveillance cameras within 150 feet of a 911 call.” The idea here is that a 911 operator can see the area to help responders. So if there is a terrorist incident, major emergency-fire, or crime, the city can use its cameras to help the 911 operator and first responders. This is a useful feature. Two issues were raised when I read this article:

First, what, if any, are there limitations on the use of the private cameras?

Can the private cameras at Boeing be used for 911 calls related to crimes? Public drunkenness? Are they effectively the same as the cities cameras?

Second, people need to be reminded that these cameras currently cover a very small part of the city. The stated goal of Daley is to cover the city in cameras.

Orozco refused to say how many cameras are currently linked to the 911 center. But, he reiterated Daley’s earlier promise. We’re going to grow the system until we eventually cover one end of the city to the other,” he said.

If a camera can only cover 50 yards, this means you need at least 1200 cameras per square mile. Keep in mind the city of Chicago is on the size of 227 square miles. Theoretically to blanket the city, you need at least 272,400 cameras. The city has at most 15,000 cameras at its disposal, so at best 5%.

The camera network would have to be greatly expanded before there would be good coverage of the entire city. Also, remember the new cameras the city uses cost at least $5,000 each. (So adding another 100,000 cameras would cost 500 million dollars – that is just the physical cost of the cameras.)

rshah Chicago

rshah Chicago, Red Light Cameras

['Smart' ads: targeted to who's watching the screen -- Newsday.com]

Cameras and televisions can be combined to customize smart advertisements. The cameras identify gender (with around a 85% accuracy) and then show the appropriate advertising – “That could mean razor ads for men, cosmetics ads for women and video-game ads for teens.”

This technology relies on facial recognition / face tracking software. The vendors mentioned are TruMedia and Quividi.

Here is a snippet about how the technology works:

In general, the tracking systems work like this: A sensor or camera in or near the screen identifies viewers’ faces by picking up shapes, colors and the relative speed of movement. The concept is similar to the way consumer cameras now can automatically make sure faces are in focus.
When the ad system pinpoints a face, it compares shapes and patterns to faces that are already identified in a database as male or female. That lets the system predict the person’s gender almost immediately.
The most important features seem to be cheekbones, fullness of lips and the gap between the eyebrows,” said Paolo Prandoni, chief scientific officer of Quividi, a French company that is another player in face-tracking technology. Others include Studio IMC Inc. in New York.
The companies say their systems have become adept at determining a viewer’s gender, but age is trickier: The software can categorize age only in broad ranges – teens, younger to middle-aged folks and seniors. There’s moderate demand for ads based on ethnic information, but the companies acknowledge that determining ethnicity is more challenging than figuring out gender and age range.

rshah Applications