[From The Associated Press: NJ city leading way in crime-fighting technology]

East Orange, NJ is a city with high crime that has decided to fight crime with new leadership and technology. The question is how much credit is due to the technology. The AP article highlights some of the technologies East Orange is using:

• Database for crime data instead of using paper reports
• Wireless computer system for all patrol cars
• Video surveillance cameras in high-crime areas
• Virtual community patrol system for residents to report crimes via text message
• Grid showing patrol cars’ locations
• Gunshot detection system that tracks the source of shootings.

The article next mentions the next generation smart camera technologies that East Orange is adopting:

The sensors, which work in concert with surveillance cameras, are designed to spot potential crimes by recognizing specific behavior: Someone raising fist at another person, for example, or a car slowing down as it nears a man walking on a deserted street late at night. Each new crime recorded is programmed into the database.

“They know what is normal behavior,” said Tarik Hammadou, whose Australian company, Digisensory Technologies, makes the sensors. “And when there is abnormal behavior like an assault, we annotate it and say to the sensor, ‘This is an assault,’ so the sensor will always remember the pattern.”

When the sensor raises an alert, an officer sitting in the department’s nerve center can zoom in on images to see if a crime is in progress. A computer program sends the information to a laptop in the patrol car nearest to the scene. The whole process takes seconds

As the article notes, the effectiveness of these technologies is questionable.

Stephen Russell of 3VR Security recently gave me the chance to ask him some questions on smart cameras. He has posted his responses over at his blog, In Hard Focus. HIs responses are very informative and insightful. I urge all of you to read his full responses. Here are the questions I asked:

1. Privacy: What should the industry approach be towards privacy? Should they incorporate features that protect privacy? Should they have default settings that protect privacy or delete information? Or should we not worry about this? Is there a need for an industry-wide approach to this issue?

2. Comparing Vendor Solutions: What can be done to make it simpler for end users to compare and contrast different solutions? It’s very confusing now for end users to sort through claims by tens of companies on effectiveness, costs, technology, etc.

3. Connections to Academia: Explain if anything needs to be done to expand the connection between industry and academia. After all, much of the engineering talent has come directly from universities. Are there any suggestions you have for universities and their research?

4. Future Growth of Smart Cameras: Have cameras hit a period of steady growth or do you foresee a potential boom ahead? If so, what are the crucial factors that you see that are limiting growth of that will cause growth to increase? Do we need to improve technology, better end-user experience, etc.

A post describing ELSAG North America’s Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) technology.

A network of fixed LPR systems, which can be mounted to structures such as bridges and overpasses, as well as mobile LPR systems, which are mounted to police vehicles that can capture up to 3,000 license plates per hour, help keep a tight watch on cities, ports, borders and other sensitive areas. The MPH-900® LPR technology is being used by hundreds of agencies all across the United States to assist with interdiction, the capturing criminal intelligence data.

[From Vumii]

Vumii Sensorii software combines a static panoramic image with a live view at night. This allows users to easily navigate an area at night. See the video for a demonstration.

Vumii also has added a software module that enables communication between radar systems and its Discoverii day/night laser camera platform. This allows for a seamless transition between radar and cameras.

While I am sure other vendors offer similar capability, the point here is how software can integrate multiple systems and sensors. As a result, users have access to greater data, but in a very manageable way.

Here are the goals as laid out in the CNN story:

In the first phase, IBM helped the City experts and network engineers to design and implement a surveillance strategy infrastructure to capture, monitor and fully index video for real-time and forensic-related safety applications. This entailed building a unified fiber network throughout the downtown Chicago area, deploying a critical wireless infrastructure to offer flexibility as required, installing hundreds of new surveillance cameras, linking thousands of preexisting cameras to the network, and creating a fully redundant backend system to monitor the video, store the images and allow for business continuity and disaster recovery applications.

The Chicago OEMC and IBM are now teaming to expand the surveillance system and to add analytics that provide license plate recognition, trending projections and intelligent search capabilities to the existing infrastructure. Chicago’s security solution is designed to provide several benefits to both city officials and citizens including: real-time video surveillance intelligence for proactive homeland security monitoring; faster response time to emergencies; more effective deployment of emergency responders; and increased travel efficiency through traffic congestion tracking.

IBM is pushing their smart camera technology. I assume its based off the Smart Surveillance System that I previously noted. The system features some security cameras that can detect gunshot sounds that prompt the cameras to turn toward the sounds before automatically calling 911. The system can also read license plate numbers. They are hoping to roll this out to other cities, but Chicago is first.

IBM is collaborating with Firetide and Genetec.

Firetide has a mesh technology that “supports wireless public safety applications ranging from traffic control and VoIP communications to covert and overt video surveillance. The Firetide system allows Chicago’s first responders to access databases rapidly and is configured to allow the addition of thousands more video access points in the future.” – From InformationWeek

Firetide’s mesh network operates within the 2.4 GHz, 4.9 GHz public safety licensed band, or 5.0 GHz band. “Because the technology is radio-agnostic, any license-free or licensed spectrum (can) be meshed,” said Bo Larsson, Firetide CEO, in an e-mail. ‘Firetide is unique in that our nodes can be decoupled from access points. Sometimes the best location for an access point is not the best place for a mesh node.”

IBM chose Genetec’s Omnicast as the main video management platform for building the Operation Virtual Shield system.

Port of Houston (Verint Systems)

The Eiffel Tower (Nice Systems)

New York City Subways (ObjectVideo)

Port of Corpus Christi, Texas (Vistascape)

O2 in London (Ipsotek)

Subway in Stockholm (Axis Communications)

“The Dust Network compares current speeds with historical speeds, and when it sees a large variation in what’s expected, it trips an alarm,” said Szymkowski, adding that AirSage monitors calls to 911 and creates an alarm when it detects a spike. “We’re probably going to be working with the Wisconsin State Patrol to understand when an incident occurred and see if we can match up the alarms with the real incidents.”

Dust Networks web site also mentions another interesting technology that makes parking meters smart.

Streetline Meter Monitors provide two-way networking to standard single space parking meters, with no wiring and no modification to the meter housings. The patented technology is compatible with over 90% of installed meters, and in most cases will simply plug into existing meter data ports. The Monitors help cities track usage and vandalism, and provide a detailed audit of all meter operations in real-time. Streetline Vehicle Sensors deliver accurate real-time information about arrivals, departures and occupancy in on-street parking spaces.

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.”

The stop sign devices are based on red light camera platforms, but they differ greatly in use. The more familiar stoplight cameras typically photograph a vehicle entering an intersection if a signal light changes to red as little as 0.1 seconds after the car crosses the stop bar line. In most cases, the resulting ticket photograph will show both the vehicle in the intersection and a visible red light, offering visual documentation of the technical violation. With the new Redflex stop sign cameras, a machine will make calculations to determine whether a vehicle did not come to a complete stop and deserves a ticket.

While I think this isn’t as important as red light cameras from a traffic safety perspective, it does show the growth in this industry. I am sure over the next several years, we will see lots of these ticketing devices. They appear effective at enforcing laws and generating revenue. Moreover, the public outcry over them hasn’t sufficiently coalesced to protest these devices.

Consider what happens to criminals who write bad checks. Nowadays, a security camera can track someone who walks into a bank and take a sharp picture of the person’s face. It can then compare that face to a database of known fraudsters. By the time the person walks up to the teller, the system can warn the teller not to cash a check from that person.

This technology is available today thanks to San Francisco-based 3VR, which has applied its search technology to face recognition. Using off-the-shelf computers, the 3VR system captures an image of a face from a security camera and compares it to faces stored in a database. More than 90 percent of the time it comes up with an accurate match, according to the company.

Three of the nation’s top 10 banks as well as the Bank of Hawaii are using it. Other customers are in retailing, travel and national security.

The Drake Hotel in San Francisco discovered a case of employee fraud as a result of the 3VR system. It showed that one employee was clocking in and then disappearing for hours at a time. The system enabled hotel security to search through camera videos for the worker’s face quickly, said Lisa Kershner, director of operations at the Drake.