Now & Future TECHNOLOGIES

Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Ashley Roe & Stephanie Silk

The big picture on video

The move from analog to IP video is not just a trend — it's a daily occurrence for security managers. That transition, on top of other upcoming improvements, including the emergence of 802.3at (Power-over-Ethernet Plus) devices, supports the idea that the future of video is less revolutionary, and more evolutionary.

These evolutions will include a video's image quality, low-light sensitivity and wide dynamic range, according to Todd Dunning, senior product manager for Pelco, Clovis, Calif. He says the industry is trying to attack these to fit in with the IP market. “When people ask why should they buy IP, right now it's because of good low-light sensitivity. But soon it will be all of these features,” Dunning says. He describes these challenges as solvable, but not for a few years.

Pelco is currently working on improving image quality, allowing it to become priority one in the IP domain as it already is in the analog realm. “It's a conundrum that people want better image quality, so they trade off light sensitivity for that,” he says.

Steve Surfaro, group manager of Strategic Technical Liaison for Panasonic System Solutions Co., Secaucus, N.J., says that because image quality is so important for video analytics, customer demand for a less costly imaging device may actually deter improvement of the overall object detection system. “Those end-users who recognize the need to balance image quality and overall system costs will begin to enjoy the improvements of continuously evolving video analysis engines,” Surfaro says.

Stephen Russell, CEO of 3VR Security Inc., San Francisco, says that video analytics will skyrocket to new heights since biometrics, access control and intrusion systems are becoming open and transforming video into one working structure. He says that the days of “government only” video analytics are gone, and that devices like analytic face and license plate readers will become more commonplace among users. “As video analytics becomes more mainstream and bundled with cameras and DVRs, people can be casual about how they use video analytics,” Russell says.

He compares video analytics to Google, which started as a research tool but now attributes the bulk of its business to casual searches. “The same thing will happen in surveillance. There are some ‘sexy’ applications, but just as important is using it to make day-to-day, hour-to-hour processes of surveillance video easier and more efficient,” he says.

Early adopters will see this video analytics transfer as early as late 2008, Russell says, but it might take two to five years for it to hit the mainstream market.

3VR is also working to integrate databases of known fraud suspects and to correlate that with biometrics that banks are extracting from surveillance systems.

Phil Robertson, vice president of corporate development for Cernium Corp., Reston, Va., says that video analytics will soon be used as data rather than something that produces moving pictures. “As we move forward, we will start to see standards evolve that will allow many companies to write applications to extract information from video,” Robertson says. “If you see a trend over time, having the ability to correlate it using software allows you to put a story together and possibly prevent something from happening,” he says.

Another step in video's future is compression of video, Dunning says. Because of the current unsuccessful search for a good combination of high resolution and space for data, compression is a constant issue for video. However, in the next few years, cameras will be coming out with H.264, a standard for video compression capable of providing good video quality at substantially lower bit rates without increasing the complexity of design.

Dunning says that a facility's transfer from an MJPEG camera system to H.264 may cut its hard drive requirement in half.

Frank Abram, vice president and general manager of SANYO's Security Products Division, Chatsworth, Calif., agrees. “Technology is turning toward advancements that will provide better identification while reducing the need for bandwidth, two things that may seem to be at odds with one another,” he says.

Surfaro contends that data mining will be the next big thing in video over the next few years, saying it will enable a user to mine the metadata from the video information they record at a place of business and to share metadata confidentially with other similar industries to improve safety and reduce crime.

Security professionals and users alike will be affected greatly by these changes, say the experts. Abram contends that as video surveillance is integrated with other business operating units, there will be a tighter collaboration with security professionals and other business units, particularly IT.

Russell concurs. “Investigators will become casual investigators. It will all become a less laborious research project the more applications that are available to them.”

All this new technology suggests a question: Will it be able to function in one working environment? Robertson says yes, citing that video will be tied closer to access control, while Russell says: “One big theme of the future will be interactivity connection. There will be a blurring of line between systems.”

Biometrics coming of age (really this time; no, really!)

One of the oldest traits known to man, the fingerprint, was used to revolutionize the way humans can be authenticated. Yet throughout the years of perfecting biometric technology, one challenge remains — acceptance. Experts say user resistance is holding back possible biometric improvements.

Today, biometrics is available for some everyday uses, such as on laptops and on cell phones in some parts of the world, but Walter Hamilton, International Biometric Industry Association chairman of the board and president, says that biometrics still isn't widely accepted. “The American public has a perception that biometric technology, and other types of authentication technology, is privacy-invasive. I don't believe that; I think it is a privacy protector,” Hamilton says.

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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

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