Security cameras are getting smart -- and scary

[Sarad AV]

hi,

So where does that put  privacy to.Your whole life
outside the house can be monitered-when there are many
cameras.

May be the worlds air getting  polluted isn't so
bad-atleast we could put anti-pollution masks and
protect our identity :)

Regards Sarath.


--- Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
>
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4883623.htm
> 
> Security cameras are getting smart -- and scary
> By Dean Takahashi
> Mercury News
> 
> From wealthy private homes to military
> installations, security cameras are 
> going high tech.
> 
> Prompted in part by new fears after the Sept. 11,
> 2001, terrorist attacks, 
> camera makers, security specialists, hard-disk
> makers and chip designers 
> are transforming the art of video surveillance, long
> known for its grainy, 
> black-and-white images and reams of tape.
> 
> With the new smart cameras, data is recorded in a
> digital format on hard 
> disk drives so that reviewing hours of surveillance
> is much easier. Solar 
> batteries let cameras run without the risk of
> failing because somebody cut 
> the power.
> 
> Data can be sent over the Internet -- often through
> wireless data networks 
> -- directly to a company's hard drive archives.
> Processing chips inside 
> the cameras make the images much easier to discern,
> and new software 
> analyzes faces so that the cameras can send alerts
> to security guards when 
> they spot known criminals or suspicious movements.
> 
> ``On one level, this is taking analog camera
> technology and adding digital 
> capabilities with new chips,'' said Bruce
> Flinchbaugh, a fellow at Texas 
> Instruments in Dallas. ``On another level, it's
> adding new intelligence to 
> redefine security.''
> 
> Geoff Beale, owner of The Alarm Company in Los
> Gatos, has installed a 
> whole digital setup at the San Jose estate of one
> client.
> 
> If someone moves past the light beams that line the
> home's perimeter, the 
> movement will activate the estate's 15 security
> cameras, which work even 
> at night and record their data onto hard disks. The
> motion detector will 
> also trigger the garage door to let out the owner's
> German shepherds.
> 
> A camera trained on the road leading to the house
> can discern a car's 
> license plates and cameras trained on doors can
> capture faces. The cameras 
> send alarms to the owners with varying degrees of
> urgency based on the 
> nature of the security threat.
> 
> ``If they have an incident, I can jump to the spot
> on the hard disk drive 
> where the video is recorded and deliver the scene to
> them by e-mail,'' 
> said Beale.
> 
> Road patrol
> 
> Concerned about homeland security, the California
> Department of 
> Transportation is installing video cameras that will
> monitor the Bay 
> Area's transportation infrastructure and transmit
> the data to Caltrans 
> engineers and the California Highway Patrol.
> 
> Hundreds of cameras will watch over the Golden Gate
> Bridge and the Bay 
> Bridge. Proxim, which makes wireless networking gear
> in Sunnyvale, will 
> provide wireless Internet networking technology for
> the project, saving on 
> huge wiring costs.
> 
> Nick Imearato, a research fellow at the Hoover
> Institute, said he expects 
> the federal government to require cameras be placed
> every 400 feet or so 
> in airports to monitor all aspects of airport
> security, from cargo areas 
> to boarding areas. Over time, as the technology gets
> cheaper, he said, 
> ``This will migrate to millions of businesses and
> even homes.''
> 
> Such constant surveillance, even in the name of
> homeland security, scares 
> civil libertarians, who feel it amounts to an
> illegal search of everyone 
> who passes within view of a camera.
> 
> ``Our position is this kind of continuous recording
> can be very dangerous, 
> especially if coupled with technology to recognize
> faces,'' said Lee Tien, 
> senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier
> Foundation, a technology 
> watchdog group in San Francisco. ``You have to
> always ask what is the 
> compelling justification for such surveillance.''
> 
> But the surveillance business continues to grow.
> Last year, the 
> closed-circuit TV camera market generated about $1.5
> billion in revenue, 
> according to JP Freeman, a market researcher in
> Newtown, Conn. While 
> sophisticated cameras that use technologies like
> Internet connectivity are 
> only about 10 percent of the market today, they are
> growing at 30 percent 
> a year, or twice the rate of standard security
> cameras, said Joe Freeman, 
> president the firm. By 2005, the market could top
> $500 million in the U.S. 
> alone.
> 
> Specialized market
> 
> The market for smart cameras is fragmented. Leaders
> include big companies 
> like Panasonic, Sony, JVC and General Electric. But
> the niche is small 
> enough for companies like Rvision of San Jose,
> supplier of cameras to 
> CalTrans, to compete.
> 
> At the heart of the smart cameras are
> video-processing chips from 
> companies like Texas Instruments in Dallas, National
> Semiconductor in 
> Santa Clara, Pixim in Mountain View, Equator
> Technologies in Campbell and 
> Smal Camera Technologies in Cambridge, Mass.
> 
> Equator designs media-processor chips that security
> companies use inside 
> cameras that monitor entrances to buildings. The
> camera detects motion and 
> determines whether two people walk through an open
> door when only one 
> flashes a security badge over a card reader. If it
> finds a possible 
> violation, like someone walking the wrong way in an
> airport corridor, it 
> can flag guards with an alarm.
> 
> Wide image range
> 
> Avi Katz, chief executive of Equator, says that
> security application 
> revenue are generating a substantial portion of the
> closely held company's 
> revenue, with money coming in from customers like
> Siemens in Germany, 
> which is installing cameras to monitor smoke, fires
> and accidents in car 
> tunnels.
> 
> John O'Donnell, chief technology officer of Equator,
> notes that cameras 
> need good processing intelligence because cameras
> need to distinguish 
> between truck exhaust and car fires before they send
> an alarm to those 
> monitoring cameras.
> 
> Cameras come with image-processing chips like
> Equator's as well as sensor 
> chips, which capture the image in digital form.
> 
> Pixim makes an image sensor that has the benefit of
> wide dynamic range, or 
> the ability to capture an image whether there are
> bright or dark spots in 
> the picture.
> 
> ``Bad guys like to hide in the shadows,'' said Rob
> Siegel, executive vice 
> president of marketing at Pixim. ``Dynamic range
> brings out the images in 
> the shadows or those that are obscured by glare of
> the sun.''
> 
> Human error
> 
=== message truncated ===


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com