from cutting-edge to off-the-shelf

Building Operating Management, Mar 2005

Sophisticated CCTV and access control applications entering the market offer facility executives new security choices

Nineteen-year-old Megan Holden clocked out around midnight from herjobataTyler,Texas., Wal-Mart. Minutes later, she was attacked. When Megan's parents called police at 4 a.m. to report that their daughter had not returned home from work, police consulted footage shot from the parking lot security camera. The grainy surveillance video showed a man in a dark coat sprinting toward her as she neared her vehicle. The kidnapper shoved her into her truck, climbed in after her and drove off. Police immediately issued bulletins to law enforcement agencies across the state to search for Megan's red Ford pickup truck.

It was already too late. Megan's body was discovered a few days later in a roadside ditch, 400 miles from the scene of the abduction. She had died from a gunshot wound to the head.

Although the security camera footage was instrumental in immediately determining that foul play had occurred, the sad truth is that the camera did nothing to prevent the crime. With advances in security technologies - especially the degree to which various security components such as CCTV, access control, intrusion measures, and monitoring and alarm systems are now being integrated - facilities executives can use these technologies to protect people and property better than ever. While it would be fallacious to say that improved security measures definitely would have saved Megan's life, there's little doubt that increased security technology is helping facilities executives construct effective security plans that aim to stop crime before it ever takes place.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras is one area in which tremendous technological progress has been made, especially when combined with other facets of facilities security. According to Dave Smith, vice president of marketing for Pelco and chair of the security Industry Association (SIA) CCTV industry group, there are three primary modes of CCTV use: deterrent, forensic and interdictive.

The original use of CCTV cameras was as a deterrent. The notion that "Big Brother" was watching was often enough to keep people from misbehaving. Today, though, CCTV is common enough that it has lost its novelty, reducing its effectiveness as a simple deterrent, especially for illegal entry or violent crime.

EVOLVING USES

As recording and storing technologies became more efficient, though, CCTV evolved into a forensic tool -that is, collecting evidence after an event has occurred, as was the case with the Wal-Mart parking lot tragedy. As CCTV is becoming more easily integrated with monitoring devices, alarm systems and access control devices, a third use of CCTV is gaining momentum: helping security personnel to identify and interrupt security breaches as they're occurring, or even before they take place.

Intelligent video algorithms, such as sophisticated motion detection, can identify unusual walking patterns and alert a guard to watch a particular screen to which the video is fed. Object-recognition algorithms can identify someone who might simply be loitering, or even a briefcase or other suspicious object that is left somewhere it shouldn't be. Again, the system can alert a monitoring guard so that appropriate action can be taken.

The most exotic intelligent video algorithm is facial recognition. However, most experts agree that use of this technology as an efficient tool in the private sector is still several years down the road.

Traditionally, intelligent video algorithms are components of a computer system in a security room to which video captured by an array of CCIV cameras is fed. But on the horizon, says Smith, manufacturers will be making cameras that can process the intelligent video algorithm right inside the camera.

Wide dynamic range is another technology that is becoming more prevalent on CCTV cameras. "Wide dynamic range means cameras can resolve details when there's a tremendous amount of both light and dark areas in the same scene," says Smith. Traditional cameras can't do that."

VIRTUAL GUARD TOURS

Smith also describes a cutting-edge viewing technology that he says is just beginning to be deployed. Multiple-image, dynamic flat-panel displays that use digital light processing technology will allow security personnel that are monitoring video feeds to arrange a number of different "screens," however they wish, on a 50-inch virtual screen that is projected onto a viewing surface, such as a wall or screen. The single 50-inch virtual screen provides the same viewing area as 26, 9-inch monitors, but the display can also be configured so that there is one 14-inch screen, several 9-inch screens and maybe a couple 12-inch screens, or any other combination thereof.

Additionally, several 50-inch virtual screens can be butted together seamlessly, increasing the flexibility and scalability of the viewing area.

"If you can put a 'screen' on the wall and eliminate all rack space needed to mount traditional monitors, you can put a large amount of viewing area in a small amount of space," says Smith. "You greatly reduce the overall cost because you don't need expensive racks."