Smart CCTV strengthens portfolio with Intellio video analytics

Smart CCTV Ltd announced today that it has become a UK distributor for the Intellio ILC-210 series of smart cameras for video analytics applications. Smart CCTV will share stand 17042 in the CCTV Hall at IFSEC with Intellio Ltd, to demonstrate the latest range of smart cameras for a range of behaviour recognition applications in security, retail and traffic management.

Smart CCTV joins a growing list of international distributors of the Intellio range of products. Intellio’s ILC-210 cameras are fully IP compliant, combining megapixel resolution with true day and night capability and onboard video content analytics. Embedded intelligence allows better control of bandwidth consumption, as decisions are taken onboard about when to send alerts or video images in the event of a security breach.

A notable benefit for remote monitoring situations is that ILC-210 cameras can provide a verified alarm from a single unit, by sending alerts in parallel to video images.

Nick Hewitson, managing director of Smart CCTV explained the reason for expanding the product range: “We decided to use Intellio for a particular traffic related contract. No other camera on the market was able to classify vehicles, count them and work out their speed, all within the smart camera itself. Intellio is complementary to our other products, as we can offer a range of solutions with different processing power from PC-based to fast, IP-enabled smart cameras.”

Intellio’s ILC-200R cameras for retail applications use the company’s leading-edge IntelliZoom™ object tracking software to implement ‘Entry Detector’, ‘Direction Detector’, ‘Traffic Detector’ and ‘People Counting’ features.

Safe and secure in transit

David Robson investigates the latest technology innovations that are providing more intelligent transport security

Imaging and Machine Vision Europe: December 2007/January 2008

The failed terrorist attacks on Glasgow International Airport, Scotland on 30 June 2007, in which a burning car drove into the glass doors of the main terminal building, were just the latest signal that security and transport control must now go hand in hand.

It should be no surprise, then, that the technologies used to ensure security and to monitor and control traffic have converged in recent years, with intelligent CCTV cameras now combining licence plate recognition with complex video analytics to help security staff track potential troublemakers before a crime has even occurred.

This union is evident in a new system released by Smart CCTV, which scans the underside of vehicles to search for explosive devices. The system can also function in conjunction with automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems to provide more secure identification of vehicles entering and leaving restricted zones.

Typical applications would include high-security areas such as airports, embassies and nuclear power stations. In these situations registered vehicles are allowed to enter certain parts of an airport where other vehicles are prohibited. To get past an ANPR system functioning by itself, suicide bombers could steal a number plate from a registered vehicle to place it on their own vehicle. However, the underside of a vehicle is unique to its manufacturer and model, and Smart CCTV’s system would deny access if this information does not agree with the data from the licence plate.

As with many of these applications, the system must function for 24 hours a day, often in adverse weather conditions, so the equipment must be very rugged. Positioning the camera to obtain a good view of the underside of vehicles was also a challenge for the company: it needs to be placed at a distance from the vehicle to achieve a large field of view, but it would be unwise to bury the equipment too deep underground. To overcome these problems, the system effectively views the vehicle through a periscope, allowing the camera to be placed in parallel with the road. Once the image is captured by an area scan camera, it is then matched to a database of known vehicles.

In addition to this specialised system, Smart CCTV also provides more general security systems, which make use of video analytics technology to track vehicles and detect suspicious behaviour in addition to reading number plates.

In common with many security and traffic systems now, instantaneous information is provided. ‘They give real-time information to which people can react,’ says Nick Hewitson, managing director of Smart CCTV. ‘The software extracts people and vehicles from the footage to attract the attention of the security guard.’ These systems may draw the guard’s attention to a car that is moving slowly compared to the other traffic, or a vehicle that has stopped on double yellow lines.

One of Smart CCTV’s systems – the ANPR Dolly – is portable, providing a flexibility that makes it suitable for diverse applications. The system would be equally suitable for councils monitoring congestion as it would for tracking the trailers entering and leaving a concert venue. ‘It can be deployed within 10 minutes, and communicates via mobile telephony,’ says Hewitson.
The system is battery powered, using a cell similar to a car battery, and the control mechanism, camera and illumination are all contained on board. Hewitson attributes the system’s portability in part to the use of smart cameras, which offer image processing in a compact package and low power consumption compared to a computer system.

However, it’s not the ideal solution for everyone. In some situations, traffic monitoring systems are needed day in, day out, year after year, and it would be pointless to adopt a portable system. In these situations, the recent popularity of Gigabit Ethernet communication, which provides fast data transfer over very long distances, has triggered a new trend for security cameras to be connected to a central server at remote locations.

This has two main advantages: it is cheaper to perform all of the image processing from a network of cameras on a central computer, rather than paying for individual processors (or expensive smart cameras) at each security gate; and it is safer to house the processors in a secure, air-conditioned building, rather than exposing the equipment to outdoor conditions.
In addition, sometimes the cameras’ settings need to be altered to suit lighting conditions, and the ethernet connection allows these parameters to be controlled remotely. In some cases, operators could even control the cameras over the web, from anywhere in the world. ‘All in all it’s quite a step forward for how powerful the systems can be,’ says Stuart Box, the director of Cybertronix, which provides these systems.

Mark Williamson, the director of Firstsight Vision, agrees: ‘Gigabit Ethernet is making a big difference for ANPR systems. If I look back to other systems, the cables could not reach far enough away, so we needed to place the intelligence on board the camera. But now, we can distribute the processing away from the cameras.’

Williamson says this is a very efficient use of resources for speed cameras, since the image processing required to recognise the number plate is only necessary when a vehicle has caused an offence, meaning processors on board each camera would be left idle for large periods of time. With a network infrastructure, however, the central server can be kept busy with jobs from many different cameras across different locations.

As with all vision applications, the illumination of ANPR systems is of the utmost importance. According to Williamson, the infrared illuminators used in security systems are not bright enough to give a good image at large distances.

LEDs are an increasingly popular light source, but they dissipate an enormous amount of heat if left running continuously at the required brightness.

Firstsight Vision has solved this problem by synchronising the LEDs with the camera to produce short, but bright pulses of light at the point when the picture is taken. In this way, the time period does not last long enough for the heating effects to build up, producing impressive results. ‘If we pulse the LED illumination we can obtain three or four times the amount of light from them,’ says Williamson. ‘It allows images at further distances, of better quality.’

This consistent improvement in technology is a sentiment that has been echoed throughout this article: transport monitoring systems are proving to be more flexible, more accurate and more intelligent than ever before. It may be a curse for those trying to avoid speeding fines, but ultimately these innovations in technology will provide greater security and safety for everyone.

KEEPING PASSENGER SAFETY ON TRACK

It must be the sentence most hated by every commuter. You’re standing at the station platform, on your way to an urgent meeting, when a train announcer broadcasts over the loudspeaker: ‘The service to.... will be cancelled, due to leaves on the line.’

Hopefully, a new machine vision system recently implemented by Firstsight Vision may help to remedy this situation, by providing an efficient method for train operators to monitor the state of the railway tracks across their network. Previously, operators had performed this manually, which is obviously a very slow and laborious process, but the new system collects the images as the train travels along the track, providing faster and more reliable coverage.

The system consists of nine cameras, mounted underneath the train, which are synchronised with the motion of the train to capture images at regular metre-long intervals. This allows the operators to find the unique geographical position of each image. Once the images are fed into a central database, it is possible to view past records to trace how the track has deteriorated through time.

The underside of a train is clearly a dirty, inhospitable environment for any electrical equipment, so it was essential to create a robust system. The company used military-spec cameras from JAI encased in a rugged package. The team also had to find a way of cleaning away the dirt thrown up from the track. The answer was a cleverly designed unit that directed the airflow to drive dirt away from the cameras, leaving a clear view to take pictures.

All of which helped the system to comply with the rail network’s stringent regulations. ‘One of our biggest costs was putting it through testing,’ says Mark Williamson, director of Firstsight Vision.

Q. Why does Milestone XProtect drop frames when recording from the IQeye cameras

A. The problem is with the Motion detection in the Iqeye camera. This seams to cause the camera to drop frames as it processes the video.

The solution to this is to disable the motion detection within the camera. This can be found under the “window” tab and then “motion” tab.

You may also want to disable the motion detection with in Milestone. This can be found in the camera settings options under the administrator settings. You will first need to set the set the “Motion Detection” to low on “Noise Sensitivity” and “Motion Sensitise”.

You will then need to set the Exclude regions to “Set all”. This can be found in “Exclude Regions…” option.

We achieved 15 IPS on 3 cameras with the following settings

Iqeye 511, 755 and 753

Image size: HD format 1280 x 720
Quality: Fine
Max frame rate: 15
Motion: Disabled
IQrecorder: Disabled
Trigger: Disabled

Milestone XProtect Basic +

Desired frame rate: 15 per second
Motion Sensitivity: Low
Exclude regions: All

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© Smart CCTV Limited 2006 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

Milestone case study: Warsash Maritime Academy

http://www.info4security.com/story.asp?sectioncode=12&storycode=4116947&c=2

By Milestone Systems

Warsash Maritime Academy at Southampton Solent University monitors simulator stress tests with Milestone IP video and IQinVision megapixel technology.

“We were looking for functionality ‘out of the box’ and Milestone has just that. It is very easy to set up and use, which is a great bonus for the teaching staff.” - Stephen Harding, Learning Systems Support Manager at Southampton Solent University

The Challenge

At Warsash Maritime Academy, their ship’s engine room simulator for student stress testing had an old analogue system with image quality in low light levels that was unacceptable. Each camera had its own monitor able to switch to a VHS tape recorder, which meant that only one camera’s output could be recorded at any given moment. With the high levels of background noise in the test environment, audio capture was very challenging and recorded results far below the high standard needed by the Academy. Editing facilities were very primitive and the VHS output quality was not good enough to show through a video projector to large audiences, when sharing test results with international stress research colleagues.

The Solution

Milestone XProtect Professional IP video management software is installed on a standard Dell PowerEdge tower server, and provides the user interface for viewing live and recorded video from six IQeye 701 megapixel cameras made by IQinVision using 4.5-10mm lenses from Lensation and an Axis 214 PTZ network camera. These are networked using a Netgear Prosafe FSM7326TP – a 24 port, L3 fully managed switch with power over Ethernet and Gigabit connectivity. The video is archived in the Milestone database onto a Buffalo TeraStation with a further terabyte of storage capability. The implementation expertise came from InCam Digital Surveillance and Smart CCTV Ltd.

The Advantages

The megapixel technology gives very clear images, even in low lighting, and all the camera views are now simultaneously monitored and recorded, which gives a much better editing capability. By recording the output to a dedicated server, the material is viewable on any PC on the university network, as well. The system is very flexible, handling video in various formats and allowing easy upgrades to scale the solution to other locations. The user-friendly software interface required very little training.

Southampton Solent University in the UK was given university status in 2005. Formerly it was the Southampton Institute which can trace its roots back to the early 20th century. Solent University is a medium sized institution having around 14,000 students and 1,100 staff, with the main campus located in the centre of Southampton, and two other locations including Warsash. A wide range of courses are offered, teaching many disciplines and drawing students from all over the world.

Of particular note is the world-leading Warsash Maritime Academy, which offers professional seafaring qualifications for merchant navies and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The Academy provides certification programmes from cadetships to Class 1 for both deck and engineer officers, short courses to develop skills such as fire fighting and sea survival, and continuing professional development modules for more experienced officers. Warsash pioneered the use of bridge and engine room simulators for higher level training, and the Liquid Cargo Operations Simulator, which is the most advanced of its kind, was developed in house. Their manned model ship handling training facility is the only one in the United Kingdom, and one of very few in the world.

Skills honed through stress simulators

“At the Maritime Academy site we have a number of simulators which are used in teaching. One of these is an engine room simulator where students can be put through their paces. All kinds of incidents can be simulated to which the students have to react. Typically students will spend a 2-hour session in the simulator dealing with a range of issues on which they are debriefed at the end of the session. Of particular interest is how the students react to stress, and the Maritime Academy is part of an international group researching reaction to stress,” informs Stephen Harding, Learning Systems Support Manager at Southampton Solent University.

For the simulator to be as realistic as possible, it is important that only the students are in it: the teaching staff must be in a separate control room where they cannot see into the simulator. In order to be able to see (and hear) what the students are doing, how the instruments read, where the controls are set, etc., video cameras are used.

“These video cameras need to be as small as possible because the space is restricted, and they also need to be unobtrusive so that they do not spoil the simulator atmosphere,” notes Harding. “An old analogue system had been used for several years but image quality, especially in low light levels, was unacceptable. Six cameras were used, each with its own monitor and able to switch to a VHS tape recorder - meaning only one camera’s output could be recorded at a time. With the high levels of background noise, audio capture was very challenging and recorded results very poor. Editing facilities were very primitive and the VHS output quality was not good enough to show through a video projector to large audiences.”

Milestone IP video fulfils the requirements

The Academy was granted some funding under a research grant to upgrade the audio and video capture in the engine room simulator. From the outset the decision was taken that the new system had to be digital and preferably an IP based system.

“We were looking for functionality ‘out of the box’ and Milestone has just that. It is also very easy to set up and use which is a great bonus for the teaching staff,” adds Harding. “It’s an integrated package that provides all the functionality that we require."

The output from the IQeye cameras now can be simultaneously monitored and recorded to give a much better editing capability. The system is very flexible, handling video in various formats: analogue, SDI, HD, JPEG, AVI, etc. so it can be used in different ways. By recording the output to a dedicated server, the material is also viewable on any PC on the university network.

Harding continues: “Of particular interest is that it is scalable. We intend to increase the number of cameras in the future to cover other simulators in the academy. By scaling the license fee, we can do that very simply.”

IP video for megapixel clarity tested and proven

Harding carried out Web-based research followed by a visit to the IFSEC security trade show in January 2007, where he saw demonstrations of the system. The university’s chosen installer, InCam Group, promoted Milestone Systems IP video management software and cameras from Smart CCTV Ltd.

“We knew pretty well what we wanted, and discussions with InCam and Milestone confirmed it,” states Harding. He also comments on InCam's performance throughout the purchase, installation, and support phases as being: “Just brilliant!”

InCam selected SmartCCTV because of their specialisation in IQeye megapixel cameras. IQeye 701 cameras were specified because of their small physical size and for the spatial resolution that would achieve the required image quality. The system captures 25 frames per second (FPS) on all cameras at HD Quality 1208 x 720. It records and shows a live view on all cameras. All the cameras are Powered over Ethernet (PoE) from the switch and, because of the environment, shielded cabling used.

“We very much worked with each other to deliver this solution at IT and camera levels and have forged a good partnership for future projects,” states Paul Stout, Managing Director of InCam Group.

Only IP video management software like Milestone XProtect can manage megapixel cameras, and these give top clarity from the highest resolution images available on the market today.

“In this installation we are using IQeye megapixel cameras at full frame rate to assess the student behaviour (and stress) within the Academy’s ship engine simulator. We tested for the optimal setup on this as the bandwidth and storage are critical here: they must have 25 frames-per-second from all cameras at very high resolution,” explains Paul Stout, Managing Director of InCam Group. “We needed to make sure that the technicalities could be achieved - and they do with the strong Milestone-IQinVision-Axis combination. It’s a high performance solution.”

Paul Stout adds: “We use an Axis 214 network camera for important PTZ duties: the IQeye 701's are running full resolution, which give a phenomenal view of the room, but the Axis 214 has really added to this as the course lecturers can quickly zoom in to check on very small gauges and switches in the simulator room. This helps them to ascertain lots of detail about how students are dealing with scenarios.”

Video and audio combined

Adobe Soundbooth CS3 software was also installed for its ability to clean up the recordings through a high-quality filtering system. This was installed on the workstation along with an AXIS 243SA Video Server to synchronise the audio and the video. The main part of the sound system involved a Biamp Nexia CS, a digital signal processor with 10 microphone line inputs and 6 microphone line outputs. The internal system design is completely user definable via PC software and can be controlled via daVinchi software screens.

The Academy have cameras installed in the engine room simulator along the back wall. Five university personnel are using the Milestone software to view the images and administer the system: two academics, two technicians and one IT support officer.

“Training in the Milestone XProtect software was given by InCam,” reports Harding. “It was all very straightforward.

”Warsash Maritime Academy provides first class education, training, consultancy and research to the international shipping and off-shore oil industries.

The Academy is an integral part of Southampton Solent University. Learn more at www.solent.ac.uk and www.warsashacademy.co.uk.

InCam is a certified Milestone and Axis partner bringing innovation and a professional solution-based approach to network video projects. InCam combines the very best in camera, lighting and computing technology with the power and coverage of scalable networks and storage. InCam differentiates itself not simply by providing unique technology-based solutions, but also supporting clients through each technical and business phase of a project. www.incam.co.uk

Smart CCTV Ltd is a value added reseller of ‘video analytics’ products that will allow operators to become more proactive in their response to criminal and undesirable behaviour and thereby improve the quality of life of the people living and working in their area. Smart CCTV Ltd uses the technologies of computer image processing and analysis to supply and sell innovative solutions. www.smartcctvltd.com

IQinVision designs, manufactures and markets the IQeye family of high performance network cameras and intelligent video processors. A technology leader, IQinVision has redefined the surveillance and industrial video markets by introducing High Definition, Megapixel and Intelligent Video network cameras. www.iqeye.com

Axis Communications is an innovative market leader in network video and print servers, founded in 1984, with offices in 14 countries and partners in 70 countries. www.axis.com

Milestone is a global leader for open platform IP video surveillance software, sold through partners in 63 countries. Reliable, robust and proven in products support the widest choiceÔ25,000+ customer installations, the XProtect in network video hardware and API integrations with other systems. www.milestonesys.com

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© Smart CCTV Limited 2008 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

Colorado County Government Deploys Cernium’s Intelligent Video Solution

Reston, VA – October 3, 2007 — Cernium Corporation, the leading developer of real-time video behavior recognition products, announced today that El Paso County in Colorado Springs, Colorado has deployed its Perceptrak® intelligent video solution to enhance security around county offices.

Perceptrak’s technology mimics the human visual process and recognizes certain patterns of behavior, such as lurking individuals, unattended packages and slow-moving vehicles. The video analytics software generates rich, real-time information about visual content to enable more effective security operations, network utilization and video data management.

“Perceptrak meets El Paso County’s objective to increase safety and security in public areas and key facilities” said Craig Chambers, president and chief executive officer of Cernium. “Local governments need a flexible, scalable and cost-effective product with both real time and forensic capabilities and we are delighted to provide a practical solution.”

Other municipalities across the country already utilizing Cernium’s intelligent video solutions to improve public safety include the City of Seattle and the City of San Diego. For more information, visit http://www.cernium.com/.
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© Smart CCTV Limited 2006 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

Cernium Announces Advanced Analytics for Digital Signal Processors

Cernium Corporation, the leading developer of real-time video behavior recognition software, announced today the availability of its intelligent video application for digital signal processors (DSPs). This solution will allow Cernium’s P-Core™ video analytics engine to be embedded in a wide variety of network “edge” devices, from intelligent DVRs to smart cameras.

Cernium’s new offering surpasses the capabilities of current DSP-based products by enabling analytics for a complete suite of behaviors simultaneously on multiple video inputs. Two channels of analytics are supported, concurrent with MPEG-4 compression at D1 resolution on a single DSP core. Each channel can be configured to simultaneously report multiple behaviors. Available behaviors include various person and vehicle activities, left-object detection, intelligent motion detection with clutter removal and wrong-way movement.

“Bringing the power and efficiency of Cernium’s intelligent video software to edge devices is a significant advance for the industry,” said Craig Chambers, chief executive officer of Cernium. “With high performance, cost-effective analytics available both centrally and at the network edge, end users will be able to choose the arrangement that best fits their system architecture.”

In February, Cernium announced the first commercial application of the P-Core engine for the PoolOptix™ pool security system, to be marketed by SR Smith of Canby, Ore. Cernium’s flagship product is Perceptrak®, an integrated analytics-driven video management solution, currently operating in commercial and government facilities throughout North America.

The new DSP solution is compatible with Texas Instruments’ DM 642 and DaVinci™ processors and is available now for integration with a wide variety of video devices.

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© Smart CCTV Limited 2006 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

Dolly, the mobile ANPR system

Smart CCTV Ltd has launched an innovatively designed mobile ANPR ‘dolly’ for use in a variety of applications including car park crime, traffic surveys and journey time analysis. The ANPR Dolly releases the user from the constraints of a single location for CCTV monitoring; communicating over G3/GPRS mobile telephony infrastructure and battery powered, it is fully deployable in any location at any time.

The ANPR Dolly comes in two variants:

Overt: this uses a very near infra-red illumination system that appears as a dull red flash to the driver of a car, warning him/her that the number plate has been captured. This illumination system is preferred in access control, sector speed control and security applications where the aim is to deter an unwanted action such as theft of vehicle from secure compounds.

Covert: this uses a longer-range infra-red illumination system that is invisible to the driver. This solution is preferred in applications like journey time analysis and traffic analysis where it is important not to distract the driver.

Applications for the new product are foreseen as: automated traffic surveys, car park surveys, car ‘shopper’ vehicle identification, de-moorage, journey time analysis, sector speed control, temporary access control.

ANPR Dolly is easy to set up at the roadside and has an industrial design to ensure reliable operation in even the harshest of UK weathers. Operating temperature range is –10ºC to +55ºC.

ANPR Dolly is a complete system comprising image acquisition, infra red illumination, embedded image processor, mobile communications and battery based power supply. Its dimensions are 600mm(L) x 360mm (W) x 1300mm(H). It can undertake processing of number plates up to 20 per second, increasing reliability through multiple reads of one vehicle. ANPR Dolly can interface with a range of database applications as well as web-based interfaces allowing access via PDAs and smart mobile telephones. Data can be transferred via TCP/IP, UDP, FTP, HTTP and DHCP protocols.

Further specifications or details about applications for the product can be obtained by contacting Nick Hewitson on 023 92 456560, or visiting www.smartcctvltd.com.

About Smart CCTV Ltd

Smart CCTV Ltd is a developer of ‘smart CCTV’ products that will allow operators to become more proactive in their response to criminal and undesirable behaviour and thereby improve the quality of life of the people living and working in their area.

Smart CCTV Ltd uses the technologies of computer image processing and analysis to supply and sell smart CCTV products. Smart CCTV Ltd became a partner with Morse Group Ltd in 2007 for the development and sale of smart camera solutions.

For further information please contact:
Keren Burney, Compège Tel. +44 (0) 1730 894123
Public Relations Consultant Mobile: 07876 780065
Email: kburney000@aol.com
or:

Nick Hewitson, Managing Director Tel: +44 (0) 23 92 456560
Smart CCTV Ltd Fax: +44 (0) 23 92 476078
Email: nick.hewitson@smartcctvltd.com
Website: www.smartcctvltd.com

New at Traffex: smart number plate reading system

A newly created team from Morse Group Ltd and Smart CCTV Ltd, today launches its first jointly engineered product, the Data Managed ANPR System or DMAS. The system will be demonstrated on stand D69 at the Traffex show, NEC, on 17-19th April.

DMAS is a flexible and scalable smart camera based system that provides Vehicle Registration Number (VRN) data for a range of traffic management, access control and security applications.

This new web-hosted system uses specialist equipment from Smart CCTV including illumination, digital camera, communications, image acquisition and processing power, linked to an integrated Morse application platform. A number of specific versions of the product are available to suit different applications.

Number plate data from passing vehicles is captured and analysed by a powerful, yet low wattage infra-red camera using onboard Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, then transmitted to a database via cables or GPRS/G3 mobile telephony.

In Access Control situations, DMAS can be pre-set with vehicle number plate information and can give near real-time alerts to raise a barrier, for example, and to send email or SMS text messages.

The DMAS camera has onboard memory for holding "White" and "Black" lists and could be linked to an existing control system. The camera also has trigger in and outs, which can be used to activate it, for barrier activation, or to let certain pre-approved visitors in as they drive up to a barrier. Processing can be done in the unit, or on the central server.

Traffic management applications for DMAS include:

Car park management: How many cars have been parked for longer than x minutes "How does this vary by time and day of the week"

Keeping track of where vehicles are: at multi-site car franchises; or at airports car parks.
Journey time analysis: how long does it take the average vehicle to get from point A to point B and how does this vary over time?

Traffic surveys: How many cars enter a town on road A and exit on road B?

De-Moorage: How long has it taken to turn a certain vehicle around at a logistics hub or specific delivery site? How long does that compare with the average?

Car shopping: Identifying vehicles which cruise around car parks whose occupants are looking for specific types of car, that are then stolen to order.

Sector speed control: on large commercial and academic sites.

Individual users can access and analyse the data using a customisable Web front-end on any system with Internet access and the required authorisation. Data can be viewed on screen as both numerical and graphical data (e.g. traffic flow, road usage, etc); or downloaded into a spreadsheet for further manipulation.

DMAS is normally a managed and hosted service to ensure a very robust IT environment with a high Service Level Agreements and availability. If the end-user has a suitable computing environment the DMAS software can be installed onto their own system.

Further information can be obtained by ringing Nick Hewitson on 023 92 456560, or visiting www.smartcctvltd.com.


About Smart CCTV Ltd
Smart CCTV Ltd is a developer of ‘smart CCTV’ products that will allow operators to become more proactive in their response to criminal and undesirable behaviour and thereby improve the quality of life of the people living and working in their area.
Smart CCTV Ltd uses the technologies of computer image processing and analysis to supply and sell smart CCTV products.

About Morse Group Ltd
Morse is an international consulting company, offering its clients specialist Business and IT advice and helping them execute for maximum benefit. Morse is a delivery-orientated company with focused industry expertise, combining a powerful blend of management, application and infrastructure consulting skills.

For further information please contact:
Keren Burney, Compège
Public Relations Consultant
Tel. +44 (0) 1730 894123
Mobile: 07876 780065
Email: kburney000@aol.com

or:

Nick Hewitson, Managing Director
Smart CCTV Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 23 92 456560
Fax: +44 (0) 23 92 476078
Email: nick.hewitson@smartcctvltd.com
Website: www.smartcctvltd.com

Or:

Simon Mercer,
Morse Group Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8 380 8315
Fax: +44 (0) 20 8 560 3400
Email: simon.mercer@morse.com
Web: www.morse.com

Morse Group teams up with Smart CCTV

A new partnership has been established between international consulting business Morse Group Ltd, the largest trading subsidiary of Morse Plc, and specialist video analytics firm, Smart CCTV Ltd. Termed a “teaming agreement”, the arrangement will see the two companies collaborating on a number of new projects, the first of which is a new, co-developed suite of applications based on Smart Number Plate Recognition (SNPR). The new product, DMAS will be launched on stand B10 at the Traffex show, NEC, on 17-19th April.

Simon Mercer, Business Development Director of Morse, said: “At Morse our whole approach for our clients is to offer a solution that delivers real business advantage. This means that we need to encompass every aspect of that IT solution. We select only those partners whom we consider to be the best in their particular field. We identified that the market for intelligent video solutions in security and intelligent traffic systems (ITS) is poised for significant growth, and we are delighted to be working with Smart CCTV Ltd who will provide image acquisition and image processing solutions to be integrated into our enterprise level applications.”

DMAS is an example of the two companies working closely together to develop a solution that will offer new applications to customers. This new web-hosted system uses specialist hardware from Smart CCTV including digital camera, lens and internal processing power, linked to an integrated Morse application platform.

About Smart CCTV Ltd

Smart CCTV Ltd is a developer of ‘smart CCTV’ products that will allow operators to become more proactive in their response to criminal and undesirable behaviour and thereby improve the quality of life of the people living and working in their area. Smart CCTV Ltd uses the technologies of computer image processing and analysis to supply and sell smart CCTV products.

About Morse Group Ltd

Morse is an international consulting company, offering its clients specialist Business and IT advice and helping them execute for maximum benefit. Morse is a delivery-orientated company with focused industry expertise, combining a powerful blend of management, application and infrastructure consulting skills.

Nick Hewitson, Managing Director, Smart CCTV Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 23 92 456560
Fax: +44 (0) 23 92 476078
Email: nick.hewitson@smartcctvltd.com
Web: www.smartcctvltd.com

Simon Mercer, Morse Group Ltd
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8 380 8315
Fax: +44 (0) 20 8 560 3400
Email: simon.mercer@morse.com
Web: www.morse.com

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© Smart CCTV Limited 2006 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

City of Seattle Selects Cernium Corporation’s Security Video Analysis Solution to Protect Downtown Locations

Reston, VA – January 30, 2007 – Downtown Seattle’s Civic campus will now be safer, thanks to a video surveillance implementation by Cernium Corporation, a leading pioneer of video analytics solutions. Perceptrak, Cernium’s video analysis and behavioral recognition software, will analyze video from security cameras in Seattle’s downtown civic campus and enable continuous assessments of the urban landscape.

Cernium’s advanced technology will analyze video from security cameras to identify potential security threats and alert the security department when they occur. For example, when a person loiters in an area during odd hours or a vehicle stops suddenly in front of a building, Perceptrak will issue alerts via onscreen audio/visual notifications and text/email messages, enhancing response time, as well as log a video of the incident for future review.

“Cernium’s video analytics solution is the perfect fit for the needs of Seattle’s downtown civic campus,” said Mark Premo, Northwest regional account manager for Cernium Corporation. “A flexible, scalable and cost-effective solution was needed that could provide not only added security to the downtown civic campus, but also a forensic capability. Perceptrak served all those needs and was easily installed with no disruption to security operations.”

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© Smart CCTV Limited 2007 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

San Diego Trolley Corporation Selects Cernium’s Perceptrak Video Analytics Solution to Improve Passenger Safety

Reston, VA – January 9, 2007 – The San Diego Trolley Corporation has taken proactive measures to safeguard passenger safety and security along its urban and border routes by selecting Perceptrak® by Cernium Corporation to monitor its expanding light rail system. Cernium, a leading pioneer of video analytics solutions, and Electro Specialty Systems (ESS) of San Diego will jointly install Perceptrak to provide San Diego Trolley security staff with unprecedented situational awareness that will deliver real-time information to preempt potential security incidents. If an incident does occur, Perceptrak’s sophisticated data mining engine will enable security staff to quickly identify, retrieve and archive critical forensic video data from the event.

Known as San Diego's "moving landmark", the Trolley serves millions of passengers each year as it travels to the International Border; Centre City; California's birthplace, Old Town; as well as Mission Valley, Fashion Valley, and Qualcomm Stadium at Jack Murphy Field. The sheer volume of passengers and the heightened security state of today’s world require an enhanced security offering which can blend into an existing surveillance infrastructure, as well as increase the effectiveness of the security response.

“We are proud to be partnered with Cernium and the San Diego Trolley Corporation on this project,” said David Reed, VP of Business Development for Electro Specialty Systems. “Railway lines are subject to high levels of crime, constantly changing threats and vulnerability and by deploying best-of breed technologies such as Cernium’s Perceptrak, the San Diego Trolley Corporation is proactively providing a safer environment for trolley passengers.”
Perceptrak’s video analytics system utilizes a master control station where each security camera can be set to look for a unique alert condition. A camera can ‘watch’ for a single behavior, such as a vehicle in a pedestrian zone, or any combination of behaviors. Perceptrak technology then analyzes the video to identify, record and alert on behaviors as soon as they occur.

“A rail system can be challenging to monitor because it is spread out over a large geographical area. Perceptrak provides the technical tools to enhance a human security force and allows them to do their job more effectively and serve their customers better,” said Bruce Whitaker, Cernium’s Western regional director. “San Diego Trolley has the unique challenge of protecting an urban track that also serves areas close to the US border. Advanced video analytics are perfectly suited to assist in both of these environments. With Perceptrak, the Trolley and all of its passengers are riding safer.”

###ABOUT CERNIUMCernium Corporation is the leading developer and provider of real-time video analytics and behavior recognition software for the security industry. Cernium’s unique software employs a patented technique that analyzes multiple, concurrent behavioral criteria in real-time with order-of-magnitude greater efficiency than previous approaches. The company’s advanced video security systems safeguard facilities in a range of industry sectors that include government, critical infrastructure, healthcare, transportation, hospitality, education and cultural institutions. Cernium’s powerful, patented security products include Perceptrak® and ExitSentry®. Newly launched CheckVideo™ won the 2006 New Product Showcase for Peripherals at ISC West. For more information, call 877-968-8383 or visit www.cernium.com.

ABOUT ESSElectro Specialty Systems, a native San Diego company, is a full service security systems integrator specializing in the design, deployment and maintenance of complex integrated security, life safety, and wireless Ethernet communications systems in the government, commercial, industrial and institutional sectors. In our 21 years of being in business, we have successfully designed and installed systems in environments ranging from heavy marine manufacturing and refineries to hospitals, universities, biotechnology facilities, public transportation systems and airports. For more information, please contact David Reed at 858.571.7746 or email to dave@ess4.net.

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© Smart CCTV Limited 2007 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

Terror threat boosts security firm profits

Early warning

One of the key technologies now hitting the CCTV market is software that recognises unusual behaviour and alerts a security team.

Unusual behaviour can be some think like running in a shopping centre when everybody else is walking, or seeming to hang about in a area when everybody else is walking around.

In such systems, which are brought to the market by Havant-based Smart CCTV, the real time image is only flashed on the screen when the person’s behaviour is outside the computers parameters, allowing the CCTV operator to make a judgement call – whether to investigate further or not.

Managing Director Nick Hewitson said: “The technological development have been driven by the realisation that the way it has always been done isn’t very effective. People sitting in front of a screen lose the ability to concentrate if they are staring at the same boring screen all day. They don’t become very effective halfway through the day. Now technology has taken that weight from them.

‘Two years ago that technology wasn’t there.”.

But he insists the world is no more dangerous now that it was at the height of the IRA terror campaign.

Fear of terrorism means big moeny for secuirty firms, reports Jeremy Dunning.

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© Smart CCTV Limited 2006 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

11 Megapixel Lumenera network cameras

Lumenera Corporation, a leading developer and manufacturer of high performance digital cameras and imaging solutions, today announced the release of the Le11059 series of 11 megapixel network cameras. Designed for higher-end security applications, this camera model is ideal for critical surveillance applications where intimate scene detail is required.

Streaming full 4008x2672 resolution at up to 5 frames per second, these cameras deliver outstanding picture quality and performance across a standard 10/100BaseT network interface. A large 35mm format CCD sensor is capable of scanning 2600+ lines of resolution using progressive scan technology –an ideal solution for capturing moving object across broad scenes. A larger SLR Canon Bayonet-Mount provides remote control of focus and iris through standard SLR lenses – offering excellent quality and range of focal lengths. This camera is available in both colour or monochrome and is offered with optional environmental enclosures.

“The new Le11059 camera series arms critical homeland security and ports of entry type applications with resolution and image detail not yet seen in the surveillance world,” stated Greg Bell, VP Business Development – Security Markets, Lumenera Corporation. “This cost-effective solution provides the equivalent of 32X the resolution of standard analog video, making it possible to replace multiple analog cameras with just one of Lumenera’s 11 megapixel cameras.”

Lumenera is pleased to announce that the Le11059 cameras are now shipping. Call you local Integrator or Distributor for pricing.

About Lumenera

Lumenera Corporation, headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, is a leading developer and manufacturer of high performance digital cameras and custom imaging solutions. Lumenera cameras are used worldwide in a diverse range of industrial, scientific and security applications.

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© Smart CCTV Limited 2006 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

The Advantages of using Smart CCTV Cameras over conventional solutions

Historically CCTV solutions have been implemented using simple analogue cameras. However all these systems have been limited in their effectiveness by 3 deficiencies in the technology.

Spatial Resolution

CCTV cameras have been based around the standard Broadcast specifications (PAL in Europe and NTSC in the USA). This gives a maximum spatial resolution of just under 800 x 600 pixels, which in many cases is enough to show that someone is committing a crime, but not enough resolution to be able to positively identify them. Research published by the Scarman Institute for the UK Home Office has shown that Criminals do not worry much about a CCTV camera, as they know it is ineffective.

Human Interface

Historically many CCTV solutions have been essentially a forensic tool; the video has been recorded but not monitored. This hopefully allows the system to go back after an incident has occurred to see what happens. However, the incident has occurred and therefore there is no element of crime prevention. Given the problems of spatial resolution along with the use of hooded tops, masks etc. it is very common for it to be impossible to recognise the perpetrator, thereby rending the system useless.

Some systems (especially those monitoring town centres) relay the information back to a Control Room. However in almost every case it is expected that one Security Officer has to watch many cameras, meaning that his attention to any camera is at best very limited and in reality non existent.

Inflexibility

The requirement to transmit live video to either a recorder or to a video wall has required fixed installations with very expensive installation costs. The actual cost of the camera is less than 5% of the total hardware and installation cost required to receive the data at the video monitor or DVR. The need for fixed cables has prevented the use of temporary cameras to monitor “hotspots” which can come and go very quickly as Police and Security Guard assets are deployed in response to the problems.

Recently the CCTV market has seen the introduction of new technologies that aim to overcome some or all of these deficiencies.

High Resolution Video over IP or Digital Video

By moving into the digital domain it is possible to circumvent the restrictions of the analogue TV specification, there are cameras out in the market, which have moved to spatial resolutions of 2000 x 1500 pixels, although the frame rate is lower. This increases the resolution by over 6 times against a PAL camera, but this technology fails to address the other 2 deficiencies. It should be noted however that most Video over IP cameras on the market today offer lower resolutions than standard analogue CCTV, they just make use of existing IT cabling infrastructure rather than the need to install dedicated analogue cables.

Behavioural Recognition Software or Video Content Analysis

Computer Science is now building algorithms, which will automatically monitor the incoming video and report only the unusual. This frees the security officer from having to monitor the mundane 99+% of incoming CCTV where nothing of interest is happening. He can then spend his time productively doing other jobs, in the knowledge that the system will alert him and deliver video to his desktop if and when he needs to react and make decisions. However while these algorithms can work on both PAL and High Resolution images the image analysis computer still requires all of the video feeds to be hardwired back to it, making it inflexible.

Smart CCTV Cameras

There is no reason why a camera should only be an image acquisition device; by building a microprocessor into the camera, Video Content analysis can take place locally without the need to transmit large packets of image data around from every camera. This means that video is only transmitted when required, from only one or two cameras in the system. The amount of data can be further reduced, Automatic Number Plate reading software (for example) in the camera would allow just a text string of the number plate (a few bytes of data) to be sent as opposed to complete images. By reducing the dataset it becomes possible to use radio frequency communications from Bluetooth through WiFi to Microwave and thereby remove the requirement to install cables.

This ability to release CCTV from the constraints of a fixed infrastructure allows the cost effective deployment of temporary surveillance of anti social and criminal hot spots, which if a fixed solution is installed tend to move around the corner. The use of Smart CCTV cameras will open up many new methods of dealing with criminal and anti social behavioural problems which have been impossible to solve until now.

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© Smart CCTV Limited 2006 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Nick Hewitson

Portsmouth City Council (Hampshire UK) trials Video Analytic solution from Smart CCTV

The Perceptrak™ system was put in as a trial to run alongside part of the existing system over a four-week period. In the area covered by the Portsmouth City Council control rooms, there are 142 cameras with live monitoring, only one of which is a static camera – the others are fully functional. There are three CCTV operators sharing 24 monitors. Perceptrak™ was run in the background monitoring some of those cameras that are not displayed to the operators until the alarm sounds.

The main questions Portsmouth CCTV wanted answered by the trial were:

How flexible was the system? and can it be used on any camera?

They discovered that because Perceptrak will interface with PAL specification analogue cameras it was extremely flexible and would work with all of their existing infrastructure

Ray Stead, Portsmouth’s CCTV Manager’s thoughts for someone else in charge of a public space CCTV system are:

If you are looking to implement a system to assist the CCTV operators to be more effective, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

Who is going to be responsible for managing the system and how are they going to do it?

and

How will the operators use the system? They are the key to any effective system and if they can’t understand or use the features of the system it will be a total waste of money.

Smart CCTV ensured that from the operator’s perspective everything remained the same as usual during the trial. There was no change to existing systems, but it gave Ray the opportunity to understand what additional benefit could come out of having Perceptrak involved. The important factor was that they could take the image from any camera and use the system to alert them to potential incidents – the operator still has to make the final decision to respond and if necessary call the police. The Hampshire Police’s policy is still that they will not respond to a technology-generated alarm unless it has visual, audio or zoning verification by an authorised person.

Portsmouth City Council’s CCTV control room acts as a filter to visual alarms, making the decision on who needs to be told. Ray continues: “Perceptrak allows us to monitor areas that we cannot justify monitoring live all the time and thereby improves our live monitoring across the city by the CCTV control room staff. For example, the operators might be watching the bars and clubs on a Friday evening as this is where there is the greatest potential for incidents to take place, while the Perceptrak system would be monitoring the quieter areas – for example car parks and shopping areas, etc.

Statistics are available on how many incidents are monitored by Portsmouth City Council’s control room, how many tapes are sent to Police, how many incidents the police respond to and how many arrests. “The trial was too short to tell results in these terms but it gave us a flavour of what we could expect to achieve – there was enough information to say ‘excellent’!”, says Ray.

Although Perceptrak can do the digital recording, in this instance, Ray Stead needed it to do only the processing of defined video feeds to support crime prevention and community safety.

For example if a particular car park was giving problems – the operator could specify that images from the two cameras capable of watching that car park were put through Perceptrak to provide alerts if unusual behaviour started to take place.

“The key is that it is flexible. It is another tool to help the monitoring process,” explains Ray. “The difference is that it tells you when something happens without you needing to watch those monitors all of the time.”

Ray is keen to explain that the system does so much more than video motion detection (VMD). Perceptrak™ can tell the shape, size, speed and character of things it is watching – it deals with behaviour recognition. During the trial, it was found that Perceptrak can even run on the fully functional cameras, something that video motion detection cannot cope with. It is a credit to the manufacturer and product designers that the product is robust enough to allow for movement and a level of inaccuracy and still yield results. “If we ‘grab’ the camera, Perceptrak stops, but give it a few moments and it starts up again. We have to get it into the home position, that is part of the operator training, and it will start up again,”

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© Smart CCTV Limited 2006 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

Video Content Analysis, what is it and why would I want it?

What is Video Content Analysis?

There are a number of terms used in different industries and markets to describe Video Content Analysis:

Analytics
Behavior Recognition
Content Analysis
Concept Coding
Intelligent Video
Object Tracking
Smart CCTV

They all however describe the real time use of computer vision in a security environment to monitor the CCTV camera feeds and assist the guard in his or her decision making process.

The UK is the country with the most CCTV cameras deployed, with over 4 million in use. It’s claimed that if you walk through London you will be watched over 300 times, however this is clearly a misconception. While it is probably true that you will be in the field of view of a CCTV camera over 300 times during your walk through London it is certainly not true that you are observed that many times for number of reasons.

Firstly CCTV control rooms have fewer monitors than there are cameras, in many cases a number of cameras are sequentially displayed on a single monitor. If for example five cameras are fed into a single monitor which then you obviously have only a 20% chance of being viewed while in any individual cameras field of view.

Secondly the staff in the control room are often expected to deal with other issues as well as monitoring the CCTV. They will be responsible for issuing keys, badges and permits to both staff and visitors; they are also responsible for monitoring the access control and fire alarm systems, controlling radio communications with both their own foot patrols and possibly the local Police. In addition they will need to be away from their desks for breaks to visit the restrooms etc. During this time they are not monitoring the CCTV images.

Finally the design of CCTV control rooms expects the guard to watch a large number of monitors. According to ASIS International, a human can effectively watch 9-12 cameras for only 15 minutes. Security guard shifts are often 12 hours long so 11 hours and 45 minutes are ineffective monitoring. CCTV Today in November 2005 estimated that the probability of an event being recognised and acted upon if it was clearly in the view of a CCTV camera was less than 1 in 1000. CCTV has historically been a forensic tool not a real time crime prevention system.

The principal of Video Content analysis is to use computers to monitor all of the cameras all of the time and when something unusual happens to alert the security guard to it. For example in a retail shopping centre a person running is unusual. The system can detect that a persons running but is unable to differentiate between a benign event, a teenage girl running over to greet her boyfriend, or a criminal event where someone is running out of a shop with an armload of jeans. However if the running event is drawn to the security guard’s attention he is able to make that subjective decision easily and respond appropriately.

Why would I want to use Intelligent Video?

The following scenario is taken from a real test of a behavioural recognition system monitoring access to parked aircraft in the USA. It shows what the advantages of computer vision over human monitoring can be.

There are 8 cameras monitoring a road that passes through a tunnel, above which is an area where commercial aircraft are parked. The system was tasked with looking for cars that stopped under the bridge and people climbing up the slope towards the aircraft. Over 1 month the system reported almost 300 events where vehicles were seen stopping. 298 of these were originally classified as false alarms caused by normal traffic flow problems. One event was due to a “fender bender” accident and one to a breakdown. There were no attempts to approach the parked aircraft.

At first evaluation, it would seem that the value of the system was negligible, all it had produced were 298 false alarms out of 300 events. Previously the cameras were monitored by a guard on conventional CCTV monitors and no events at all had been reported in the month before. It was found that the 300 events would take the guard on average less than 30 seconds each to determine the risk.

So instead of employing staff 24 / 7 for 30 days to monitor the tunnel only two and a half hours man hours were required over the whole 30 day period.
In addition, in the previous month the guard reported no events, given that each of the 300 events reported by the system actually took place in the test month. It is probable that a similar number actually took place previously when the guard was supposed to be watching and he didn’t notice them. It is therefore highly likely that if someone had stopped a car briefly to allow a passenger to get out and approach the aircraft, the event would have been missed, while the Intelligent Video system would have caught it.

The “Smart” CCTV system had therefore raised the effectiveness of the monitoring from zero to 100% while reducing the operating costs from 720 man hours to 2.5 man hours of labour.

When the security manager looked at the cost effectiveness on this basis, he had no hesitation in purchasing a system.


Key issues to determine before looking at Video Content Analysis.

What are your operational requirements? As seen above, if it is to have a minimum number of false alarms then the human operator will be more effective, he failed to report any of the traffic events under the bridge, in fact he didn’t report anything at all, so his false alarm rate was zero.

What percentage of the cameras is best monitored by computer vision, and what percentage is better monitored by a human operator? In general, today computers do better on the cameras where nothing much happens (and therefore guards get bored) and people do better in busy scenarios where occlusion between people makes it hard for the software.

A good example is an embassy that has a back alley where no one ever goes. This is covered by a CCTV camera and this was the only camera out of about 50 that was implemented at the beginning. The embassy realised that no one paid attention to this camera because nothing ever happened but if someone was in the alley they really needed to know about it fast.

In the majority of applications today, only a percentage of the total number of the cameras are monitored by video content analysis, some are only recorded and some are monitored full time by the security staff. You need to determine what is the specific risk and the most appropriate method of monitoring for each point. Do the risks and scenarios change during the course of 24 hours?

Can you build upgradeability into your plans? In many cases the number of cameras monitored by the software increases as experience of the benefits is gained.



Video Content analysis is a tool that allows you to improve your operational effectiveness. It is not the “all seeing” Big Brother monitoring all activity.

It helps you spot the needle in the haystack; CCTV provides huge amounts of mostly irrelevant data. Video Content Analysis extracts information from that data.

It reduces your costs, manual monitoring is inconsistent and expensive.

It reduces your risk by moving away from the limited human attention span of less than twenty minutes, and screening all of the video streams in parallel.

It allows you to move from a forensic mindset of finding out what happened after the event has taken place towards real time analysis and decision making.

You do still need to employ professional security staff to make the decisions on the information presented to them in a sensible manner.

© Smart CCTV Limited 2006 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

The Benefits and Pitfalls of using Megapixel IP CCTV

Introduction

The market for video over IP in the security arena has been slow to take off in the UK. Many CCTV professionals have felt that the quality of the data has been significantly worse than the pre existing Analogue systems.

Originally, CCTV video over IP was promoted on a cost saving basis in that the video data could be transmitted over the customers existing IT network infrastructure and thereby significantly reduce the cost of cabling.

At the same time the designers of IP cameras looked to see what the market was currently using. They focussed on the fact that analogue cameras output 25 frames per second and this data rate is thought by the CCTV market to be “real time” video. This was despite the fact that most video tape recorders were multiplexing the camera inputs so each camera was only recorded at a very few frames per second.

This basic misconception as to what the market really needed has led to a number of unfortunate trade offs.

Spatial Resolution
In order to keep the data bandwidth requirements low enough many video over IP cameras have been designed with CIF (320 pixels x 240 pixels) resolution. A PAL analogue camera has almost 480,000 pixels per frame while a CIF image consists of only 76800 pixels. It is immediately clear that the resolution of a CIF image is only 16% of that of the previous generation analogue systems, consequently with much worse quality.

Image Compression
Even with the data reduction created by reducing the spatial resolution the data bandwidth is still usually too high to implement a complete CCTV system using pre-existing IT infrastructure. To reduce the bandwidth requirement further the IP camera manufactures implemented video compression within the camera. Again many of them made an unfortunate decision and decided to use MPEG-4 as their compression method.

At first MPEG-4 looks to be a sensible choice. It is used in huge quantities to encode and decode DVDs and therefore the semiconductor technology was available and cheap. However MPEG-4 was designed to maximise the compression while offering a good image stream to the person watching the DVD. It does this by transmitting a full frame known as the I frame and then a series of partial images whose data is only what has changed since the last I frame. This series of changes might be up to 100 frames before the next I frame update.

The major problems with MPEG-4 are that you can only do check sums on the I frames to prove that no tampering has happened and that it is virtually impossible to do any video content analysis on an MPEG-4 stream because you need the whole of each frame to be able, for example, to track people successfully.

The Benefits of Megapixel cameras

The term Megapixel applies to cameras with a minimum of 1 million pixels although most Megapixel manufacturers start their ranges at 1280 x 1024 or 1.3 million pixels, which is almost three times the resolution of a PAL camera and seventeen times that of a CIF camera. This immediately gives a much better quality image for both forensic and legal purposes. There is little advantage of capturing the perpetrator of a crime at so poor a resolution that you are unable to identify him or her.

The Megapixel camera manufacturers also realised they to would have bandwidth problems and have solved it by moving away from the requirement to provide 25 frames per second video. On the basis that time lapse video of 2 to 5 frames a second was good enough when tape recorders were the only method of recoding; then higher resolution video at the same frame rate will improve the system not degrade it.

In addition many of them have implemented MJPEG as the compression algorithm, this transmits all of the compressed data every frame and therefore makes the camera much more compatible with future developments of behavioural recognition software.

The Pitfalls of Megapixel cameras

It is a truism of all computing, garbage in = garbage out. The resolution of any electro-optical system is made up of all of the components and is called the Modulation Transfer Frequency, normally referred to as the MTF. The MTF is specified as a number of line pairs per millimetre and if you remember the test card on your television it is a similar grid where you measure the ability to resolve black and white lines that get closer and closer together. The more line pairs the better the resolution.

Historically analogue CCTV cameras have worked with C or CS mount lenses. The MTF of these low quality glass lenses is usually slightly better than the MTF of a PAL resolution camera. Therefore, the camera limits the total MTF. With a CIF resolution camera it is possible to use an even cheaper plastic lens and still have the camera as the MTF limiting factor. However as soon as you increase the camera resolution to Megapixel quality, the MTF of a standard glass C / CS mount lens (let alone a plastic lens) becomes the limiting factor. You have to purchase high quality Megapixel lenses to work with Megapixel cameras to gain the benefit. Unfortunately these are more expensive due to smaller manufacturing batches at higher quality. It is however a waste of money to specify high-resolution cameras without specifying high-resolution optics.
Another lens problem is due to the fact that often Megapixel sensors are of 1 inch (or even more) format. Using a lens designed to work with a 2/3 inch or less sensor will clip the image resolution and often lead to a darkening towards the edges of the image.

We have seen implementations of Megapixel cameras where a highly inappropriate lens has been sold with the camera leading to the customer believing that the Megapixel camera gave no resolution benefit over his old PAL camera when a simple lens change gave him a much improved image.

Unless only a very few Megapixel cameras are going to be deployed the output data rate is sufficiently high that dedicated network infrastructure will be required and potentially more hard disk space will be required in order to store 31 days of video. However the cost of hard disk storage continues to fall so this is becoming less of a problem.

Conclusion

Megapixel cameras are not the solution to every problem. A door entry system monitored by a guard will be much more cost effective using a CIF and MPEG-4 camera. However where image quality is key to the operational requirements of the CCTV installation, the additional marginal cost in implementing Megapixel cameras in those locations which require them is small compared with the total cost of ownership of the CCTV system over its expected life.

© Smart CCTV Limited 2006 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

Smart CCTV Supports Atkins Transport Systems on the M6

Smart CCTV Ltd supported Atkins Transport Systems in their FOND (Fibre Optic Network Detector) tests for the Highways Agency, on 05.09.2006. The test were conducted between Junctions 13 and 14 of the M6 North Bound.

We were involved in the final part of the test, the performance stage. We mounted a Vega Long Range camera on the top of a People Carrier and recorded number plates and images of vehicles traveling in the inside lane of the motorway.

We where able to read plates 35-40 metres away with-out having to add extra IR lighting. The only change we made to the camera was to fit a 50mm Mega Pixel lens.The images were used to check the information from the sensor and to find vehicles of interest on the recorded footage.

As you can see from the images below the weather conditions were very poor as the spray caused from vehicles passing, affecting the quality of the image. However the camera was able to read the plates on these images.

For more details please click on the links below:-
Vega Long Range: Click here
FOND Sensors: Click here

Smart CCTV Ltd: http://www.smartcctvltd.com
Atkins Transport Systems: http://www.atkinsglobal.com
QinetiQ: http://www.qinetiq.com
Highways Agency: http://www.highways.gov.uk

© Smart CCTV Limited 2006 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows

Risk-UK: Recognising number plates at 20 per second

Smart CCTV has announced a new, high resolution Vega camera for automatic number plate recognition (ANPR). The Vega Long Range is able to read number plates up to a maximum of 25 metres away, much further than previously achievable. It has a resolution of 1024 x 738 pixels and a powerful image processor that enables reading of up to 20 plates per second.

Manufactured by Tattile, the Vega Long Range is a smart camera system with built-in illumination and optical character recognition (OCR) software, encased in a waterproof, IP66 rated housing. No external PC is required for image processing. It comes complete with infra-red lighting that enables it to read number plates day or night, in direct sunlight, poorly lighted areas and in the dark.

With its low voltage and 8W power requirements the Vega Long Range can stand alone in any location, running on battery, solar or wind power. Nick Hewitson, managing director of Smart CCTV, said: “The Vega Long Range is ideal for free-flowing traffic scenarios, such as on motorways or slip-roads. If vehicles are traveling close together at around 70 mph, then you need a fast processor that can ‘pull’ that number plate in time.”

About Risk-UK
Risk UK is the UK's premier monthly security and business continuity publication. The magazine addresses all aspects of risk that are faced by today's business community, assisting those responsible for the security, safety and risk management of the UK's largest companies.

Areas covered by Risk UK are diverse, ranging from countering potential terrorist threats, through to preventing crime against the business and those within it, detecting espionage attempts, fire prevention, health and safety, business continuity, disaster recovery, data protection, insurance, eliminating breaches in legislation, avoiding litigation, etc.. http://www.risk-uk.com/

About Smart CCTV
Smart CCTV Ltd is a leading Value Added Reseller (VAR) of Video Analytic Solutions. Video Analytics is the technology where computer vision software is used to filter real time video streams from security and traffic management cameras, and to alert operations staff to potential incidents.

We add value by providing a comprehensive range of professional services to our customers. These include consultancy, system integration into existing operational environments, project implementation and training.
http://www.smartcctvltd.com

© Smart CCTV Limited 2006 – All right reserved. For more information on Smart CCTV Limited please visit our web site: www.smartcctvltd.com - Published by: Ross Burrows