CCTV

Closed-circuit television

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors.

It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly transmitted, though it may employ point to point wireless links. CCTV is often used for surveillance in areas that may need monitoring such as banks, casinos, airports, military installations and convenience stores.

The increasing use of CCTV in public places has caused a debate over public surveillance versus privacy. People can also buy consumer CCTV Systems for personal, private or commercial use. A more advanced form of CCTV, utilizing Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), provides recording for possibly many years, with a variety of quality and performance options and extra features (such as motion-detection and email alerts).

In industrial plants, CCTV equipment may be used to observe parts of a process from a central control room; when, for example, the environment is not comfortable for humans. CCTV systems may operate continuously or only as required to monitor a particular event.

History

The first CCTV system was installed by Siemens AG at Test Stand VII in Peenemünde, Germany in 1942, for observing the launch of V2-rockets. The noted German engineer Walter Bruch was responsible for the design and installation of the system.

CCTV recording systems are still often used at modern launch sites to record the flight of the rockets, in order to find the possible causes of malfunctions, while larger rockets are often fitted with CCTV allowing pictures of stage separation to be transmitted back to earth by radio link.

In September 1968, Olean, NY was the first city in the United States to install video cameras along its main business street in an effort to fight crime.The use of closed-circuit TV cameras piping images into the Olean Police Department propelled Olean to the forefront of crime-fighting technology.

The use of CCTV later on became very common in banks and stores to discourage theft, by recording evidence of criminal activity. Their use further popularized the concept. In recent decades, especially with general crime fears growing in the 1990s and 2000s, public space use of surveillance cameras has taken off.

Uses

Crime prevention / evidence

The use of CCTV in the United States is less common, though increasing, and generally meets stronger opposition. In 1998 3,000 CCTV systems were found in New York City. There are 2,200 CCTV systems in Chicago.

The most measurable effect of CCTV is not on crime prevention, but on a small number of high media-profile case of detection. The investigation or prosecution of several notable murder cases have been aided by the use of CCTV evidence; such as the apprehension of David Copeland, the Soho nail bomber. The use of CCTV to track the movements of missing children is now routine.

After the bombings of London on 7 July 2005, CCTV footage was used to identify the bombers. The media was surprised that few tube trains actually had CCTV cameras, and there were some calls for this to be increased.

On July 22, 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police at Stockwell tube station. CCTV footage debunked claims made by the Metropolitan Police in defense of the shooting of an innocent man.

Because of the bombing attempts the previous day, some of the tapes had been supposedly removed from CCTV cameras for study, and they were not functional. An ongoing change to DVR based technology may in future stop similar problems occurring.

The UK cameras were deployed and are maintained by NEP - Roll to Record, a division of NEP Broadcasting.

In the UK, CCTV is also used to target anti-social behaviour. In many areas, Local Authority CCTV works with the police to combat, for example, drink-related anti-social behaviour in town/city centres or youth-related anti social behaviour in housing estates.

Industrial processes

Industrial processes that take place under conditions dangerous for humans are today often supervised by CCTV. These are mainly processes in the chemical industry, the interior of reactors or facilities for manufacture of nuclear fuel. Use of thermographic cameras allow operators to measure the temperature of the processes. The usage of CCTV in such processes is sometimes required by law.

Traffic monitoring

Many cities and motorway networks have extensive traffic-monitoring systems, using closed-circuit television to detect congestion and notice accidents. Many of these cameras however, are owned by private companies and transmit data to drivers' GPS systems.

Transport safety

A CCTV system may be installed where an operator of a machine cannot directly observe people who may be injured by unexpected machine operation. For example, on a subway train, CCTV cameras may allow the operator to confirm that people are clear of doors before closing them and starting the train.

Operators of an amusement park ride may use a CCTV system to observe that people are not endangered by starting the ride. A CCTV camera and dashboard monitor can make reversing a vehicle safer, if it allows the driver to observe objects or people not otherwise visible.

Privacy

Opponents of CCTV point out the loss of privacy of the people under surveillance, and the negative impact of surveillance on civil liberties. Furthermore, they argue that CCTV displaces crime, rather than reducing it. Critics often dub CCTV as "Big Brother surveillance", a reference to George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which featured a two-way telescreen in every home through which The Party would monitor the populace.

More positive views of CCTV cameras have argued that the cameras are not intruding into people's privacy, as they are not shriveling private, but public space, where an individual's right to privacy can reasonably be weighed against the public's need for protection.

The recent growth of CCTV in housing areas also raises serious issues about the extent to which CCTV is being used as a social control measure rather than simply a deterrent to crime. However, since the events of September 11, 2001, many studies have suggested that public opinion of CCTV has grown more favorable. Many proponents of CCTV cite the attacks of the London Underground bombings as one example of how effective surveillance led to swift progress in post-event investigations.

Quite apart from government-permitted use (or abuse), questions are also raised about illegal access to CCTV recordings. The Data Protection Act 1998 in the United Kingdom led to legal restrictions on the uses of CCTV recordings, and also mandated their registration with the Data Protection Agency. The successor to the DPA, the Information Commissioner in 2004 clarified that this required registration of all CCTV systems with the Commissioner, and prompt deletion of archived recordings.

However subsequent case law (Durant vs. FSA) has limited the scope of the protection provided by this law, and not all CCTV systems are currently regulated. Private sector personnel in the UK who operate or monitor CCTV devices or systems are now considered security guards and have been made subject to state licensing.

A 2007 report by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office, highlighted the need for the public to be made more aware of the "creeping encroachment" into their civil liberties created by the growing use of surveillance apparatus. A year prior to the report Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, warned that Britain was "sleepwalking into a surveillance society".

In 2007, the UK watchdog CameraWatch claimed that the majority of CCTV cameras in the UK are operated illegally or are in breach of privacy guidelines. In response, the Information Commissioner's Office denied the claim adding that any reported abuses of the Data Protection Act are swiftly investigated.

In the United States, there are no such data protection mechanisms. It has been questioned whether CCTV evidence is allowable under the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures". The courts have generally not taken this view.

In Canada, the use of video surveillance has grown very rapidly. In Ontario, both the municipal and provincial versions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act outline very specific guidelines that control how images and information can be gathered by this method and/or released.

Technological developments

Computerized monitoring

The first CCTV cameras used in public spaces were crude, conspicuous, low definition black and white systems without the ability to zoom or pan. Modern CCTV cameras use small high definition color cameras that can not only focus to resolve minute detail, but by linking the control of the cameras to a computer, objects can be tracked semi-automatically.

For example, they can track movement across a scene where there should be no movement, or they can lock onto a single object in a busy environment and follow it. Being computerized, this tracking process can also work between cameras.

The implementation of automatic number plate recognition produces a potential source of information on the location of persons or groups.

There is no technological limitation preventing a network of such cameras from tracking the movement of individuals. Reports have also been made of plate recognition misreading numbers leading to the billing of the entirely wrong person. In the UK, car cloning is a crime where, by altering, defacing or replacing their number plates with stolen ones, perpetrators attempt to avoid speeding and congestion charge fines and even to steal petrol from garage forecourts.

CCTV critics see the most disturbing extension to this technology as the recognition of faces from high-definition CCTV images. This could determine a person's identity without alerting him that his identity is being checked and logged. The systems can check many thousands of faces in a database in under a second.

The combination of CCTV and facial recognition has been tried as a form of mass surveillance, but has been ineffective because of the low discriminating power of facial recognition technology and the very high number of false positives generated. This type of system has been proposed to compare faces at airports and seaports with those of suspected terrorists or other undesirable entrants.

Computerized monitoring of CCTV images is under development, so that a human CCTV operator does not have to endlessly look at all the screens, allowing an operator to observe many more CCTV cameras. These systems do not observe people directly. Instead they track their behavior by looking for particular types of body movement behavior, or particular types of clothing or baggage.

The theory behind this is that in public spaces people behave in predictable ways. People who are not part of the 'crowd', for example car thieves, do not behave in the same way. The computer can identify their movements, and alert the operator that they are acting out of the ordinary. Recently in the latter part of 2006, news reports on UK television brought to light newly developed technology that uses microphones in conjunction with CCTV.

If a person is observed to be shouting in an aggressive manner (e.g., provoking a fight), the camera can automatically zoom in and pinpoint the individual and alert a camera operator. Of course this then lead to the discussion that the technology can also be used to eavesdrop and record private conversations from a reasonable distance (e.g., 100 metres or about 330 feet).

The same type of system can track an identified individual as they move through the area covered by CCTV. This is being developed in the USA as part of the project co-funded by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and, in France, by a company called Keeneo. With software tools, the system is able to develop three-dimensional models of an area, and to track and monitor the movement of objects within it.

To many, the development of CCTV in public areas, linked to computer databases of people's pictures and identity, presents a serious breach of civil liberties. Critics fear the possibility that one would not be able to meet anonymously in a public place or drive and walk anonymously around a city. Demonstrations or assemblies in public places could be affected as the state would be able to collate lists of those leading them, taking part, or even just talking with protesters in the street.

Retention, storage and preservation

The long-term storage and archiving of CCTV recordings is an issue of concern in the implementation of a CCTV system. Re-usable media such as tape may be cycled through the recording process at regular intervals. There also may be statutory limits on retention of data under some sort of Data Protection Act. However, individual recordings may be retained for indefinite periods for use in investigations or as evidence in legal proceedings.

Recordings are kept for several purposes. Firstly, the primary purpose for which they were created (e.g. to monitor a facility). Secondly, they need to be preserved for a reasonable amount of time to recover any evidence of other important activity they might document (e.g. a group of people passing a facility the night a crime was committed). Finally, the recordings may be evaluated for historical, research or other long-term information of value they may contain (e.g. samples kept to help understand trends for a business or community).

Recordings are more commonly stored using hard disk drives in lieu of video cassette recorders. The quality of digital recordings are subject to compression ratios, images stored per second, image size and duration of image retention before being overwritten. Different vendors of digital video recorders use different compression standards and varying compression ratios.

The following formula can be used to determine the storage capacity required in binary gigabytes:

Capacity = n x f x s x a x d

n: number of cameras
f: frame rate (number of frames per second)
s: average size in kilobytes of each compressed frame
a: activity time of each camera in percentage (e.g., use .60 for 60%)
d: duration in days
k: constant approximately equal to 1213.6 (exact value: 32768/27)

Closed-circuit digital photography (CCDP)

A development in the world of CCTV (October 2005) is in the use of megapixel digital still cameras that can take 1600 x 1200 pixel resolution images of the camera scene either on a time lapse or motion detection basis. Images taken with a digital still camera have higher resolution than those taken with a typical video camera. Relatively low-cost digital still cameras can be used for CCTV purposes, using CCDP software that controls the camera from the PC.

Images of the camera scene are transferred automatically to a computer every few seconds. Images may be monitored remotely if the computer is connected to a network.

Combinations of PIR activated floodlights with 1.3Mpix and better digital cameras are now appearing. They save the images to a flash memory card which is inserted into a slot on the device. The flash card can be removed for viewing on a computer if ever an incident happens. They are not intended for live viewing, but are a very simple and cheap "install and forget" approach to this issue.

Closed-circuit digital photography (CCDP) is more suited for capturing and saving recorded photographs, whereas closed-circuit television (CCTV) is more suitable for live monitoring purposes.

Special uses

A very special use of CCTV is at Hessdalen AMS where by it is used for discovery of unidentified flying objects.

In the earlier days of television, some programs, and selected live sporting events, were shown on closed-circuit television in theaters across the United States. The 1952 Metropolitan Opera production of Bizet's Carmen was telecast complete by NBC on closed-circuit television. From 1965-1970, the Indianapolis 500 was shown live on closed-circuit television in many movie theatres. The first few Wrestle Mania events were shown in such a way as well. The first six Super Bowls were shown at special closed-circuit TV gatherings in the host cities, where the game was blacked out by National Football League rules in place at the time.

In the UK, some places have installed talking CCTV, where the operator can talk to the people they monitor.

British author Chris Roberts quips that “Closed-Circuit Television Cameras are proving very useful to low-budget TV producers throughout the UK for programs along the lines of World’s Rudest Drunks Outside Nightclubs in the North of England.”

CCTV countermeasures

Unless physically protected, CCTV cameras have been found to be vulnerable against a variety of (mostly illegal) tactics:

Some people will deliberately destroy cameras. Some outdoor cameras, such as those employed by the Chicago Police Department, have bullet-resistant housing.
Spraying substances over the lens can make the image too blurry to be read.
Laser pointers can temporarily blind cameras, and higher powered lasers can damage them. However, since lasers are monochromatic, color filters can reduce the effect of laser pointers.
For wireless networks, broadcasting a signal at the same frequency of the CCTV network is reported to be able to jam it.

References

^ Dornberger, Walter: V-2, Ballantine Books 1954, ASIN: B000P6L1ES, page 14.
^ ET_SRB Cam FS.indd
^ Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation
^ Cameras Monitor Rocket Launch
^ ^a ^b Staff (August 2007). "CCTV". Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk. Retrieved on 14 December 2008.
^ http://www.urbaneye.net/
^ http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/factcheck+how+many+cctv+cameras/2291167
^ http://www.cctvusergroup.com/art.php?art=94
^ Baram, Marcus (2007-07-09). "Eye on the City: Do Cameras Reduce Crime?", ABC News. Retrieved on 10 July 2007.
^ "Tens of thousands of CCTV cameras, yet 80% of crime unsolved" by Justin Davenport 2007
^ "Are CCTV cameras a waste of money in the fight against crime?" The Independent, 7 May 2008
^ "CCTV to drive down cab attacks," BBC
^ Taxi CCTV cameras are installed," BBC
^ CCTV patrols to monitor estates," BBC
^ "http://news.bbc.co.uk/," BBC
^ "CCTV mast destroyed by vandals," BBC
^ "Talking CCTV pioneered in Wiltshire," BBC, 23 March 2003
^ "You're being watched, New York!," BBC
^ "Is Chicago safe from a terrorist attack?," Chicago Sun-Times
^ "Menezes family view CCTV footage," BBC
^ "Menezes death 'cover-up' doubted," BBC
^ "Digital CCTV scheme switches on," BBC
^ http://guardian.nepinc.com/nepEurope.php
^ Smile, the cameras are here to watch over you - The New Zealand Herald, Tuesday 18 March 2008, Page A14
^ Information Commissioner's Office
^ Majority of UK's CCTV cameras 'are illegal' Telegraph.co.uk
^ Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act Text
^ Congestion charge car '200 miles away'
^ Chris Roberts, Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind Rhyme, Thorndike Press,2006 (ISBN 0-7862-8517-6)
^ http://naimark.net/

IP camera

Introduction

IP video surveillance can be defined as the transmission of video utilizing open internet protocols and standards for the purpose of recording and monitoring. This should not be confused with more proprietary methodologies of transmitting video in which only the manufacturer of the camera can decode the video for the purpose of recording and/or display.

The first IP camera was released in 1996 by Axis Communications, and it utilized an embedded Linux platform internal to the camera. Axis also released documentation for their low-level API called "VAPIX" which builds on the open standards of HTTP and RTSP. This open architecture encouraged third-party software manufacturers to develop management and recording software resulting in exponential growth of the IP video surveillance market.

As with still digital cameras, resolution are increasing all the time. multi-megapixel IP-CCTV cameras are now available at resolutions of 1, 2, 3, 5 and even 11 megapixels. This said, affordable lenses that can deliver sharp enough images for cameras of 5Mpix and above are not yet available

Some of the advantages of IP-based video surveillance include:

Reduced system cost and added functionality due to general-purpose IP networking equipment infrastructure.
Choice of open-platform video recording hardware and software.
Ability to select specific frame rates and resolution for each camera in a system.
Greatly reduced system cost due to low-cost cabling in large installations (CAT5e instead of RG-59 coaxial cable).
Ability to use Power over Ethernet allowing for one cable to handle power and data.
Flexible and seamless support for a variety of standard and multi-megapixel image resolutions way beyond NTSC, PAL and SECAM.
Transmission of commands for PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) cameras via the same cable.
On-camera automated alerting via email or file transfer in response to video motion detection or dry-contact alarms.
Support for different streaming media and compression formats to relieve transmission bandwidth and data storage requirements.
Support for new embedded intelligent video motion detection with shape recognition/counting applied to objects, people, and vehicles.
Integration of video surveillance with other systems and functions such as access control, alarm systems, building management, traffic management, etc.
Future-proof installations with field-upgradeable products due to the ability to upgrade camera firmware over the network.

Today there are many vendors of IP cameras and many vendors for digital video recorders and network video recorder (NVR) software. IP surveillance equipment vendors typically include both specialized digital imaging equipment manufacturers and larger manufacturers that are active in consumer, broadcast, and security video.

Some specific advantages and disadvantages of IP cameras

Advantages

Higher resolution. Megapixel cameras can far exceed image detail from conventional CCTV cameras.^[2]
Convergence onto existing IP cabling infrastructure
Easy to route long distances over existing IP infrastructure on multi-building sites
Reduced space requirements in large (many camera) CCTV setups because video switching and routing is done via computer and does not need physically large and expensive video matrix switchers.
Progressive scan (versus interlaced scanning). Allows still-images to be removed in better quality from a video feed and can render clearer images from a fast moving target (interlaced scanning will have shutter-blind artifacting). Not all IP cameras are progressive scan. Progressive scan are available with both CMOS image sensors and CCD sensors.
No additional hardware required to convert vision signal into computer domain for recording onto hard drives.
It's very easy to add one camera at a time to the system.

Disadvantages

IP cameras tend to have an initial higher cost (yet in many cases have a lower system implementation cost).
The range of IP cameras is somewhat limited when compared to analog CCTV (although this is beginning to change quickly).
Lack of standards for IP Video protocol. Not all IP cameras send video the same way and this means only certain cameras work with certain IP video recording solutions (which again further limits the range of cameras that can be chosen for an installation). Two industry groups are currently working towards IP camera standards. Analog CCTV has practically one standard of transmission (being either PAL or NTSC depending on the world region).
High network bandwidth requirements: typical CCTV camera with resolution 640x480 and 10fps in MJPEG mode requires about 3 Mbit/s.
Latency: the stream encoded at the camera source takes time to travel to the server.

Industry Groups Promoting Standards

In 2008, to advocate the development of standards for IP cameras, 2 industry groups formed: The Open Network Video Interface Forum (ONVIF) and the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA). While the PSIA was founded by Cisco and ONVIF was founded by Axis, Bosch and Sony, each group now has numerous members. As of January 2009, each group has released version 1.0 of their specification. No industry standard is accepted yet.

References