For long time readers of this blog, it’s pretty clear there is a split on content. In the last year, the majority of posts have covered video surveillance and red light cameras in Chicago. The amount devoted to smart cameras has been overshadowed. Thanks to a generous offer by Stephen Russell, I am joining InHardFocus.com. Moving will give me a larger audience, collaborators, and more time to develop better quality posts. You can see my first post on the Secure Border Initiative Network. I still want to focus on Chicago and in the next few weeks I am going to start a new blog, EyeingChicago.com. This will blog will focus on the developments within Chicago. I think this split will be good for me and my readers. Wish me luck!
rshah General
[From Cameras make Chicago most closely watched US city | Latest National Headlines | News fro...]
An AP story on the Chicago cameras provides a broad overview of the issues. A similar story by the WSJ ran a few months back. The story touches on a number of themes that I have discussed on this blog including the scope of the camera network, integration of private cameras, concerns about the effectiveness of cameras, and worry about the potential abuse of the camera system by government.
rshah Chicago, General
[From Spy cameras won't make us safer - CNN.com]
A good overview column on surveillance cameras by Bruce Schneier. I agree with a lot of the points he makes. There is nothing new here, but it’s a good short argument about the use of cameras to fight crime.
rshah General
[From Epoch Times - Photographer Richard Gordon Documents U.S. Surveillance Cameras]
Eight years after the attacks of 9/11, documentary photographer Richard Gordon is exploring the controversy of security over personal privacy in his new book, American Surveillance. Amazon
In a project spanning 2003 to 2008, Gordon served as what he calls an observer in a climate with an increasing number of security cameras in public spaces. Shooting pictures with 35mm film in black and white, Gordon became a spy of countless spy cameras.
rshah General
[From Intelligence officials looking to cull terror info from huge stashes of surveillance tape -- chicagotribune.com]
A research program, Video Analysis and Content Extraction, has been under way since 2001 by the Office of Incisive Analysis, part of the government’s Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. It is spending about $30 million and has several interesting projects related to this blog.
An overall program overview is available here. The VACE program provides funding for innovative, creative, high-risk research to achieve significant advancements in video content extraction technologies. Some listed examples include:
• VACE-funded face detection technology was transferred to NSA, who is providing additional funding to move to a PDA.
• VACE UAV technology transferred to the Joint Warfare Analysis Center enables UAV exploitation.
• Many VACE funded video research technologies are feeding the commercial market. Technologies are being integrated into existing commercial products, such as InforMedia, TerraSight, VideoFOCUS, MARVEL, AlertVideo, Digital Video Manager by companies including CMU, IBM, Honeywell, Salient Stills and Sarnoff Corporation. For example video resolution enhancement technology was transferred to the FBI Forensics via VideoFOCUS diminished time for decision making.
Another online publication, Intelligence, lists the companies by funding area for the phase II research in 2003-2005. There are also many powerpoint presentations online by Dennis Moellman who heads the program, for those that are seeking more information.
rshah General
[From SecurityInfoWatch.com Article- Eye on Video: Examining intelligent video]
Fredrick Nilsson of Axis Communications offers a number of myths on intelligent video. They are:
Myth 1: Intelligent video is more intelligent than you
Myth 2: Intelligent video is the wave of the future
Myth 3: I’ve seen the demo, so this must really work!
Myth 4: It takes a PhD to set it up
Myth 5: You need a digital signal processor (DSP) to run intelligent video
These all seem sensible to me. (I have a broader view of smart camera systems than Objectvideo, see their definition here)
rshah General
[From New Video Surveillance Cameras - High-Tech Law Enforcement Spying Programs - Popular Mechanics]
Great article, here are some interesting snippets:
Liberty Island’s video cameras all feed into a computer system. The park doesn’t disclose details, but fully equipped, the system is capable of running software that analyzes the imagery and automatically alerts human overseers to any suspicious events. The software can spot when somebody abandons a bag or backpack. It has the ability to discern between ferryboats, which are allowed to approach the island, and private vessels, which are not. And it can count bodies, detecting if somebody is trying to stay on the island after closing, or assessing when people are grouped too tightly together, which might indicate a fight or gang activity. “
My heist had been condoned by Pedro Ramos, Pathmark’s vice president of loss prevention, though he didn’t know precisely when or where I was going to attempt it. The beer was identified by an object-recognition scanner at ankle level—a LaneHawk, manufactured by Evolution Robotics—which prompted the cashier’s question. Overhead, a camera recorded the incident and an alert was triggered in Ramos’s office miles away on Staten Island. He immediately pulled up digital video and later relayed what he saw. “You concealed a 12-pack of Coronas on the bottom of the cart by strategically placing newspaper circulars so as to obstruct the view of the cashier.” (Using Storevision)
But examples abound. Take E-ZPass. Drivers signed up for the system to speed up toll collection. But 11 states now supply E-ZPass records—when and where a toll was paid, and by whom—in response to court orders in criminal cases. Seven of those states provide information in civil cases such as divorce, proving, for instance, that a husband who claimed he was at a meeting in Pennsylvania was actually heading to his lover’s house in New Jersey. (New York divorce lawyer Jacalyn Barnett has called E-ZPass the “easy way to show you took the offramp to adultery.”)
rshah Applications, General
From The Art of Surveillance, Wired has a story in its culture section with 11 images relating to surveillance.
Also, Newsweek ran a story on the new documentary film, Look by Adam Rifkin, that shows the impact of surveillance by relying entirely on surveillance footage. The web site has some good info and the writers have blogs. Right now the film is only in a few cities, hopefully at some point they will release a DVD (it will never come to a theater near me).
rshah General
From ABC News:
A basic story on whether surveillance cameras reduce crime. Nothing new, but the article is balanced (which is unusual).
rshah General
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
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