Security cameras are getting smart -- and scary

[Eugen Leitl]

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

Pixim has deals with a number of camera makers and has a sample networked 
camera in its lobby. There, employees can log on to a Web site and view 
the images from the lobby camera so they can see who is visiting them.

Capturing good images is one step in improving security. But another is 
recognizing known criminals based on surveillance photos. A variety of 
companies like Identix in Minnetonka, Minn., are creating software that 
can recognize faces and compare them to pictures in law enforcement 
databases.

Ultimately, the problem with smart cameras is the same problem with normal 
cameras: human beings.

Flinchbaugh at Texas Instruments visited Northampton, England, a town that 
installed cameras all over town to catch known criminals.

``They found that the guards watching the videos didn't do so well at 
spotting people because they just became hypnotized by watching so long,'' 
Flinchbaugh said.
Contact Dean Takahashi at dtakahashi at sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5739