From the Daily Herald:
A story on the manufacturer of Chicago’s surveillance cameras with the blue flashing light. The best facts are the cameras were initially purchased as a $11 million “sole-source” contract. (I guess Chicago couldn’t or didn’t find anyone else that could provide such a camera?) And they recently sold 80 cameras to Baltimore.
But read the story if you are interested in the company, because they are looking for a national partner.
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From The Register:
A story on Nice Systems which makes smart software. Nice is a leader in smart phone surveillance technology. This software is used by the police to identify people as well as when keywords are used. It is also used by corporate call centers to detect “emotions.” For example:
FedEx’s Custom Critical service, for example, uses Nice software to notice when someone says “wow,” explains Eyal Danon, Nice’s vice president for global marketing. “Whenever a customer says ‘wow’ on a call, that call immediately is being recorded and then it’s being sent to hundreds and hundreds of call center agents so they can actually learn from the interaction and see what prompted the customer to say ‘wow,’” he says. From ASAP
They are now moving into smart software for cameras. Here is a PR blurb from the Register article:
“By employing software-based analytics on unstructured multimedia content, companies are able to detect customer intent, often through near real-time interactions where a customer may express concerns, desires or provide other signals of their intentions,” said the statement. The same advantages of crime prediction will be conferred on the security services, it said: “Our solutions enable our public safety and security customers to identify threats as they occur, and analyze video footage to identify suspicious objects or behavior more quickly and effectively.”
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From SecurityInfoWatch.com:
The press releases are in full force with examples of how smart cameras are being deployed. Today’s news is from ObjectVideo and the project is in Barcelona. The story states:
the Metro will use the ObjectVideo system to identify intruders in what the Barcelona Metro considers “employee only” areas, such as tunnels, restricted station areas and train parking lots . . . including the surveillance of station platforms, abandoned luggage and even “abnormal behavior by passengers.”
The story also notes that accuracy has improved in recent years. For example, ObjectVideo “has written algorithms that are not false-tripped by recurring elements, such as arriving trains.”
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From Newswire:
A press release for videoNEXT notes a few applications of smart cameras:
– Airports currently employ guards to prevent people from entering the secured gate area by entering at the exit. Often this exit is a corridor that immediately adjoins the entrance, which is also manned by guards who are clearing passengers for entrance to the secured gate area. The videoNEXT object identification and tracking technology can be deployed to detect persons moving in the wrong direction. Upon detection, the system would alert guards stationed at the entrance. These guards could intercept the intruder. There are more than 400 airports in the United States. The exits are guarded seven days a week for 16 or more hours per day. The potential savings are considerable.
– At border crossings, one problem for US Customs agents is that cars often ride up to a security point, then make U-turns. Law enforcement agents suspect that they are engaged in criminal activity, and run after seeing more security than expected. The object tracking technology can alert a person at a remote location that a U-turn has occurred and will record the make and model of the car, as well as the license plate.
– The Army is also exploring ways to use the technology on the battlefield. If the system is monitoring an area, for instance, it can alert commanders when something or someone has moved in one of the areas being monitored.
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From a press release:
InfrAegis Inc. (Ia) is releasing a new product. iaMedium is a national security and public safety communication system with the ability to detect a variety of hazardous threats, deploy prescripted countermeasures, and provide a first responder communications system to ensure reliable broadcasting in the event of a catastrophic terrorist attack or natural disaster.
iaMedium incorporates four of IA’s detection systems:
(1) Nuclear/Radioactive Isotope Detection System–statistically eliminates the possibility of false positive alarms;
(2) Computer-Aided Trace Detection System–determines whether weapons of mass destruction, explosives, firearms, opiates, vehicle-smuggled humans, or other contraband materials are present;
(3) Incident Video Synchronization System (IVSS)–records multiple streams of digital video in both day and night formats, positively identifying a detected vehicle, cargo container, or person via remote monitoring; and
(4) Global Operations Monitoring and Analysis Center (GOMAC)–monitors, records, analyzes, alerts, and enacts automatic preapproved electronic countermeasures when a threat is detected.
Administracion Portuaria Integral (API) (Integral Port Administration in English), in an effort to make the Port of Manzanillo one of the safest ports in Mexico, worked with InfrAegis to install the Vehicle/Pedestrian/Rail Detection System, (which incorporates Ia’s Nuclear/Radioactive Isotope Detection System and GOMAC). This system has been operating in Mexico’s Port of Manzanillo without interruption since November 2005. The system, detects radioactive and nuclear material entering or exiting the Port without disrupting port operations or workflow.
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From CNET News.com:
Startup 3VR Security is offering software that will analyze footage from cameras. Their software/hardware acts as a DVR that can store and analyze video data. It processes archived video footage and breaks the footage into scenes. It then becomes possible to search by time, camera, person, or triggered alert. The person is interesting because once the software identifies a person, it can then search the footage to find other instances of the same person. This sounds very cool!
The cost is around $1,000 per security camera.
Update:
3VR is hot. The NY Times has a story on smart cameras that features their technology. Nothing new in the story but a nice description of how smart cameras and 3VR’s technology can improve surveillance systems.
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MDI is another vendor of smart camera software.
There new software, VerifEye Intelligent Video Security Software does the usual stuff:
The standard VerifEye IVS package offers the following features and capabilities:
– People and Vehicle Tracking
– Motion and Behavior Analysis
– Facial Detection
– Perimeter Monitoring
– Intrusion Detection & Secure Area Monitoring
– Unattended or Abandoned Object Detection
– Asset Protection & Object Removal
– Anti-Tailgating and Anti-Piggybacking
– Object Counting & Statistical Reporting
– Entry & Exit Directional Monitoring
– Object Detection, Classification and Pattern Recognition
– Automated Self-Learning
– GPS and Port GIS Mapping
– Multiple Camera Tracking
– Dynamic Report Generation
– Utilization of Infrared and Thermal Cameras
– Video Stabilization
– Automated 24/7 Video Monitoring with Real-Time Alerts
– High-Tech Filters that Exclude Natural Background and Irrelevant Objects
Advanced intelligent add-on options for VerifEye IVS include:
MotionEye – A powerfully superior video motion detector. It is an excellent enhancement option to all Digital Video Recorders, security systems and sensors. MotionEye far outweighs the basic built-in features found in cameras and DVRs.
TrackerEye – A sophisticated technology that automatically tracks objects with Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) cameras and eliminates the manual control process by automatically following and tracking objects. In complex situations, TrackerEye makes intelligent decisions based on threat levels and distances; tracking targets until completely out of the camera’s field of view.
IntrusionEye – A state-of-the-art video based solution to anti-tailgating, anti-piggybacking and anti-passback. IntrusionEye directly addresses the long-standing problem of “access bypass” faced by the security industry. It ensures compliance with access control procedures via video verification and can easily be added on to most systems, including MDI’s award-winning SAFEnet and iTRUST integrated solutions.
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A PR on smart cameras that provide video authentication from IQinVision.
I have no idea whether there is a real problem and need for this technology, but it is interesting nonetheless.
IQinVision, market leader in high performance megapixel network cameras, smart IP cameras and network video recording systems, today announced the introduction of IQauthenticate on-camera image verification for all IQeye501 and IQeye300 Series Smart Network Cameras.
Legal use of digital images is limited because they are easily manipulated, often making the images inadmissible for prosecution. Many digital video recorders (DVRs) and network video recorders (NVRs) can detect tampered images after they have been processed but cannot verify whether the source of the video was authentic. Therefore, these widely-used video recorders can “authenticate” video that has been tampered with – IQauthenticate solves this problem.
Alan Brill, senior managing director of Technology Services for Kroll On-Track, believes on-camera image authentication will have a significant impact on the surveillance industry. “There is a real need to ensure that digital video images have not been tampered with,” said Brill. “Without such controls, the use of digital video for prosecutions and other legal-related uses could be seriously compromised. With older film cameras you could ensure your video was real by tracking it from the time you removed the film from the camera. When the industry shifted to digital video this ‘guarantee’ disappeared.”
IQeye cameras with IQauthenticate have a unique encrypted digital signature that identifies the IQeye that produced the image and detects if the image has been altered. Users simply submit an image to ‘http://www.iqeye.com/IQauthenticate.html’ for verification, and if even one pixel has been changed IQauthenticate will detect it.
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Wired has a story on Riya, which is a new photo-tagging service that uses facial-recognition technology to identify the people in your pictures. The goal is to quickly identify people in everyday pictures. Its a nice example of finding new uses for facial recognition technology.
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From CNET News.com:
Another gun shot detection system, called Redowl from iRobot, however this one is designed to be mobile (it works with the Packbot). Some quotes from the article:
the company announced a prototype system designed to pinpoint incoming rounds from rifles and mortars, and also to provide surveillance and targeting capabilities. The remote-controlled gear, named Redowl (short for “robot enhanced detection outpost with lasers), is designed to work with iRobot’s PackBot combat device.
Redowl features a laser pointer and illuminator, an acoustic localizer and classifier, a thermal imager, GPS (Global Positioning System), an infrared and daylight camera, and two wide-angle cameras. iRobot, which also makes the Roomba household vacuum robot, developed the Redowl system in conjunction with the Photonics Center at Boston University.
In field tests, the PackBot-Redowl combination had a success rate of 94 percent in locating the source of rounds fired from 9mm pistols, and M-16 and AK-rifles, at a range of more than 100 meters, the company said.
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