Page 20 - Security Today, January/February 2019

More Than a Set of Eyes Cameras don’t miss a thing in the monitoring process
BTy Paul Kong
he technology behind today’s optical sensors and lenses has come a long way in trying to mimic some of the hallmark characteristics of the human
visual system. When it comes to video sur- veillance, the human brain can limit the ef- fectiveness of even the best camera system. Our brains have an amazing ability to filter out information even when we don’t realize it. Similar to digital compression, our brains tend to ignore redundant data, particularly when other distractions are present.
Tune In, Tune Out
There are studies that illustrate how security staff, when looking at a video monitor with no action, will tune it out after just 20 min- utes and completely miss an event when it finally does take place. Multiply that by the number of cameras and monitor windows and the problem only compounds itself.
Any surveillance system where humans are part of the monitoring process is subject to this type of human error. It is no one’s fault, it is just the way we are made, and may actually allow us to better process informa- tion based on an internal “priority.” While it might be possible to throw more bodies at the problem, it wouldn’t really fix the under- lying issue, so we can still predict that events will be missed.
Cameras don’t miss a thing of course, and with motion tags written to an NVR, it is easy to go back and quickly find incidents after they have occurred.
What about stopping events in progress? Security personnel can have a lot on their minds. Depending on the size and scope of an organization, they may be required to multi-task, doing much more than simply staring at a monitor waiting for something to happen. What operators really need is help to detect events as they happen, in real time, so that attention can be focused when seconds count.
When a Camera is More Than a Camera
IP-based cameras today can do so much more than their analog counterparts and “seeing” is only a small part of it. Analytics are not new to our industry, but using them for focused, real-time response to events is still underused. Even for customers who own cameras with analytics features, many of them never get the follow-through with their
integrators to set them up correctly. This is an opportunity to add real value to the system, but typically the analytics are only used to set motion markers or tags on cap- tured footage for easier post-event searching. There’s so much more that cameras can do when it comes to alerting staff when an event is happening.
Take the example of a business that closes in the evening and should have zero motion occurring inside the building after hours. If an intruder somehow manages to bypass the standard security system by tricking a door sensor, should a camera not be able to send an alert that motion is occurring when it should not be? These simple additions are often overlooked by integrators, installers and customers alike.
Audio Analytics Enable Focused and Quick Responses
When glass is smashed, and a business is in the process of being burglarized, it is impor- tant to be notified immediately. If a camera with a microphone can detect and correctly identify the sound of glass breaking, then it is a perfect complement to any security sys- tem and can help reduce overall costs of in- stalling purpose-built glass break sensors at every point of ingress.
Gunshots, screams, or even just noise go- ing beyond a normal threshold can all be de- tected by modern on-edge camera analytics, yet few of the myriad number of IP-based surveillance systems deployed make making use of this technology.
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 | SECURITY TODAY
VIDEO SURVEILLANCE
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