We’re talking about interview room recording. But the real question is: Why isn’t hardly anyone else?
Showing posts with label tech trends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tech trends. Show all posts
Questions in the interview room
We’re talking about interview room recording. But the real question is: Why isn’t hardly anyone else?
DVR fail
Sponsored by StarWitness.com -- free software demo 888-685-2100
An old DVR in a Chinese restaurant -- chugging along. When you try to open the CD drive to collect the video evidence, you realize it's glued shut with grease. Crimes commonly occur in these not-so-clean places. And many occur in places where DVRs fair better: banks, hotels, retail stores and grocery stores. Even in these clean places, though, DVRs fail. Like when a grocery store’s DVR has a hard drive bite the dust before the police can get out to the scene to do the collection.
Digital in-car camera standards
Sponsored by StarWitness.com -- free software demo 888-685-2100
The DOJ is currently seeking comments on proposed standards for digital video cameras for police vehicles. They're interested in feedback on things such as the testing of the cameras and rules of evidence.
The official name of the program is the Vehicular Digital Multimedia Evidence Recording System (VDMERS) Standard for Law Enforcement.
Here's a link to an article on governmentvideo.com: Police Vehicle Digital Camera Standards Proposed
Link to the announcement on the Federal Register: Vehicular Digital Multimedia Evidence...
The DOJ is currently seeking comments on proposed standards for digital video cameras for police vehicles. They're interested in feedback on things such as the testing of the cameras and rules of evidence.
The official name of the program is the Vehicular Digital Multimedia Evidence Recording System (VDMERS) Standard for Law Enforcement.
Here's a link to an article on governmentvideo.com: Police Vehicle Digital Camera Standards Proposed
Link to the announcement on the Federal Register: Vehicular Digital Multimedia Evidence...
Video evidence everywhere
"The advent of video-in-your pocket camcorders and cellphones, and the proliferation of surveillance camers, mean that events that once would have gone unrecorded are preserved for posterity--and, inevitably for trial."
An article recently published by the New York Times discusses the prevailance of video evidence. It explains the effect of video evidence on juries and rulings, as well as offers some predictions.
In the article, Professor Cassell, a former federal judge now teaching at the University of Utah, anticipates that in the future video evidence may need masking of parts of frames to ensure that the video has “'a laserlike focus on probative parts of the tape and exclusion of irrelevant parts of the tape.'”
Link to the New York Times article: "With Video Everywhere, Stark Evidence Is on Trial"
Caught in the act by phone app
(Sponsored by StarWitness.com -- free software demo 888-685-2100)
One man's video surveillance system e-mailed him a photograph showing a someone's head peeking around the corner of his backyard. He checked the live video feed though his phone's app and saw "two guys rummaging around." He called the police and put one technology-driven-citizen-activism case on the books.
Here's a link to then entire article at MercuryNews.com: San Jose man uses surveillance app on iPhone...
One man's video surveillance system e-mailed him a photograph showing a someone's head peeking around the corner of his backyard. He checked the live video feed though his phone's app and saw "two guys rummaging around." He called the police and put one technology-driven-citizen-activism case on the books.
Here's a link to then entire article at MercuryNews.com: San Jose man uses surveillance app on iPhone...
The Switch to Digital: A New Kind of Collection
The video surveillance industry is undergoing a dramatic change with the move from analog video tape systems to digital video recorders, or DVRs. The new technology has delivered real benefits to businesses of all sizes, but has created a new set of challenges for law enforcement.
Consider an example. A small business owner buys a four camera DVR surveillance system for under $500, and installs it himself in his store to replace his old analog tape system. He no longer has to bother with rewinding and swapping tapes, or worry about whether reused tapes are degrading the quality of his video. He can customize recording settings like frame rate and resolution that were not configurable at all on his old system. He may even be able to access and manage the system remotely from his home computer. When the day comes that his store is robbed, the business owner calls the police and waits for their arrival, ready to see his surveillance investment pay off.
Consider an example. A small business owner buys a four camera DVR surveillance system for under $500, and installs it himself in his store to replace his old analog tape system. He no longer has to bother with rewinding and swapping tapes, or worry about whether reused tapes are degrading the quality of his video. He can customize recording settings like frame rate and resolution that were not configurable at all on his old system. He may even be able to access and manage the system remotely from his home computer. When the day comes that his store is robbed, the business owner calls the police and waits for their arrival, ready to see his surveillance investment pay off.
Remote Control
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Remote File Storage...
Coming soon to location near you: IP-Surveillance that can really cause a snag in your attempts to recover digital video evidence. IP-Surveillance, often called IP-based video surveillance or network video, uses a wired or wireless network to transport digital video, audio, and other data. While IP-Surveillance can provide a host of benefits to the owner with an “install it and forget it” mentality, for the investigator that needs to recover video evidence it can be more challenging than a recovery from a standard embedded digital video recorder.
The Internet is a global connection of networks that provides data connectivity between computers. The IP in IPSurveillance stands for Internet Protocol which is the addressing system for computers on the Internet. Cameras used in IP-Surveillance connect directly to a network and allow for the video captured by these cameras to be monitored and recorded from anywhere. While there is an option to store the video captured by these surveillance systems to a hard drive at the same physical location, many owners are opting to take advantage of off-site storage solutions.
Coming soon to location near you: IP-Surveillance that can really cause a snag in your attempts to recover digital video evidence. IP-Surveillance, often called IP-based video surveillance or network video, uses a wired or wireless network to transport digital video, audio, and other data. While IP-Surveillance can provide a host of benefits to the owner with an “install it and forget it” mentality, for the investigator that needs to recover video evidence it can be more challenging than a recovery from a standard embedded digital video recorder.The Internet is a global connection of networks that provides data connectivity between computers. The IP in IPSurveillance stands for Internet Protocol which is the addressing system for computers on the Internet. Cameras used in IP-Surveillance connect directly to a network and allow for the video captured by these cameras to be monitored and recorded from anywhere. While there is an option to store the video captured by these surveillance systems to a hard drive at the same physical location, many owners are opting to take advantage of off-site storage solutions.
YouCrime.com
A look at how social and video sharing sites are becoming critical tools for police.
It’s no secret that video evidence has had a huge impact on the Law Enforcement community in the past couple of decades. Digital and Analog video recordings captured from surveillance systems at the scene of the crime have revolutionized the way police approach evidence collection. But it seems that there’s a new way of finding and using video evidence, one that has become more and more popular over that past few years with the increased popularity of online networking.
It’s no secret that video evidence has had a huge impact on the Law Enforcement community in the past couple of decades. Digital and Analog video recordings captured from surveillance systems at the scene of the crime have revolutionized the way police approach evidence collection. But it seems that there’s a new way of finding and using video evidence, one that has become more and more popular over that past few years with the increased popularity of online networking.
The Good, the Bad and the Blurry
A Comprehensive Look at Analog and Digital
An armed robbery turns deadly when the perpetrator guns down a clerk. There were no living witnesses to the crime. Investigators search the scene for clues. Two different video surveillance systems are found covering the area of the crime: one inside the store and the other at the adjacent gas station. One video surveillance system is connected to an analog timelapse recorder. The other system is connected to a digital video recorder (DVR). One system provides evidence that is easy to recover and usable video images of the suspect. The other system...not so much. Which system, analog or digital, is causing the problems and why?
An armed robbery turns deadly when the perpetrator guns down a clerk. There were no living witnesses to the crime. Investigators search the scene for clues. Two different video surveillance systems are found covering the area of the crime: one inside the store and the other at the adjacent gas station. One video surveillance system is connected to an analog timelapse recorder. The other system is connected to a digital video recorder (DVR). One system provides evidence that is easy to recover and usable video images of the suspect. The other system...not so much. Which system, analog or digital, is causing the problems and why?
“The hard drive containing the video evidence is sometimes worthless without the DVR it came from. It would be like seeing a beautiful fingerprint at a crime scene but being unable to photograph or lift it for analysis."
TOOLBOx: Technical Tips and Info
Video Format Trends in the IP Camera Market
Silicon and Demand for Interoperability Drive Compliance with Standard Codecs
by Steven Goodridge, Ph.D.
When connecting an analog security camera to an analog video recorder or monitor, one rarely considers whether the devices will work together. The NTSC and RS-170 analog video standards followed by hundreds of manufacturers virtually guarantee that if the products were purchased in the USA and the connectors fit, the video will come through intact. In the computer-driven digital video world, however, things never seem so certain. As standalone DVRs replaced tape-based VCRs for CCTV recording, a myriad of different proprietary video formats emerged. Now the future of video security is over IP, where every camera will digitize and compress the video remotely. What will this mean for the variety of video formats that video analysts will encounter?
The IP Camera Marketplace
Today over 1000 different models of IP video security cameras are advertised for sale by over 100 different manufacturer brands1. Many devices have specialty features such as pan-tilt movement, low light operation, and high resolution, each of which may be useful in a different part of a single security system installation. But systems integrators require that all of the cameras they install interoperate with the video software they deploy. The functionality of the network video recorder (NVR) software is of primary importance in a video security system installation. If a camera is sold bundled with NVR software, that software is typically weak on features and may only work with that manufacturer’s cameras. By comparison, enterprise-class NVR software is typically a third-party product that will work with many camera makes and models. As prices for IP cameras continue to drop (some are available for under $200) they have become commodity items, and those that do not interoperate with the leading NVR systems will see their deployment limited (in some cases, marketed only for private home use).
Popularity of Standard Codecs
Most camera manufacturers have pursued interoperability by using standard-compliant implementations of popular video codecs and network protocols. Over 60% of IP cameras on the market support the MPEG-4 (Part 2) or baseline H.263 (“MPEG-4 Short Header Mode”) video standards. Over 50% support some form of JPEG video transmission, and 18% support H.264. Only about 4% of devices on the market produce some other format
of video1. For maximum interoperability, many cameras support both JPEG transmission and one other, more bandwidth-effi cient codec. JPEG is a popular “lowest common denominator” video codec in IP cameras because support for decompressing JPEGs is built into virtually all web browsers.
Standard Solutions in Silicon
Another factor contributing to increased support for standard video codecs in IP cameras is the availability of ASIC components that implement high-performance standard codecs, such as IndigoVision’s IV8103 MPEG-4 chip and HiSilicon’s Hi3510 H.264 chip. ASIC technology allows computationally intense video compression operations to be performed with less power and at lower hardware cost per camera. The improved video quality, reduced data rate requirements, and lower cost of such ASIC-based cameras is driving older, programmable DSP-based camera designs into obsolescence.
Integration Challenges
NVR manufacturers pursue interoperability by testing their software on dif ferent cameras and augmenting their camera driver software as necessary. An NVR package may include hundreds of software drivers for different camera models. Besides decoding the video stream, NVR software must also be able to start and stop a video stream, and may provide other controls such as pan, tilt, and image characteristics. At present, many of these additional controls have proprietary implementations on each manufacturer’s brand of camera, which causes difficulty for NVR vendors and systems integrators. An NVR developer must obtain the communications protocol for each camera model from the manufacturer or develop their software to use the manufacturer’s proprietary software developers kit. This complexity led to a recent industry effort spearheaded by Axis, Bosch and Sony to standardize interfaces for network video products.
Fortunately, the syntax of video bitstream itself tends to vary much less from manufacturer to manufacturer because of the market-driven popularity of standard video codec implementations.
File Formats
Network video software such as an NVR may store video to a non-volatile file in a variety of ways. Typically, the video data will not be recompressed, as this would result in quality reduction and require significant processing resources, but the video data may be wrapped in either a proprietary or standard file container. Some NVR application requirements such as continuous recording, simultaneous recording/playback with time shift, multiplexing of many cameras, and storage of metadata may compel the use of a proprietary container file for surveillance data storage. However, most NVR systems allow the export of video clips to standard file formats. If the original recording was made using a standard video codec such as MPEG-4 Part 2 or H.264, it is technically feasible for the expor ted clip to be made using an appropriate standard file container (such as MP4) without recompression. Some NVR products allow optional reformatting and/or recompressing the video to a different codec when exporting a clip. Care should be taken to avoid such conversions where the quality of the exported clip is important.
The Future
At the time of this writing, many IP camera manufacturers (such as Axis Communications) have announced new product lines based exclusively on H.264 ASIC components. H.264 provides superior video compression efficiency and quality compared to other standard codecs, is used by many HD camcorders and is supported by Blu-ray disc players and many network-attached media extenders. This common codec provides the capability for both standard and high definition video to be transported from cameras to computers and consumer television components for archival and playback without any recompression artifacts. It is therefore likely that H.264 will gradually replace MPEG-4 Part 2 for IP video applications.
About the Author
Steven Goodridge, Ph.D., develops digital video surveillance and forensics technology at Signalscape, Inc. in Cary, North Carolina.
Silicon and Demand for Interoperability Drive Compliance with Standard Codecs
by Steven Goodridge, Ph.D.
When connecting an analog security camera to an analog video recorder or monitor, one rarely considers whether the devices will work together. The NTSC and RS-170 analog video standards followed by hundreds of manufacturers virtually guarantee that if the products were purchased in the USA and the connectors fit, the video will come through intact. In the computer-driven digital video world, however, things never seem so certain. As standalone DVRs replaced tape-based VCRs for CCTV recording, a myriad of different proprietary video formats emerged. Now the future of video security is over IP, where every camera will digitize and compress the video remotely. What will this mean for the variety of video formats that video analysts will encounter?
The IP Camera Marketplace
Today over 1000 different models of IP video security cameras are advertised for sale by over 100 different manufacturer brands1. Many devices have specialty features such as pan-tilt movement, low light operation, and high resolution, each of which may be useful in a different part of a single security system installation. But systems integrators require that all of the cameras they install interoperate with the video software they deploy. The functionality of the network video recorder (NVR) software is of primary importance in a video security system installation. If a camera is sold bundled with NVR software, that software is typically weak on features and may only work with that manufacturer’s cameras. By comparison, enterprise-class NVR software is typically a third-party product that will work with many camera makes and models. As prices for IP cameras continue to drop (some are available for under $200) they have become commodity items, and those that do not interoperate with the leading NVR systems will see their deployment limited (in some cases, marketed only for private home use).
Popularity of Standard Codecs
Most camera manufacturers have pursued interoperability by using standard-compliant implementations of popular video codecs and network protocols. Over 60% of IP cameras on the market support the MPEG-4 (Part 2) or baseline H.263 (“MPEG-4 Short Header Mode”) video standards. Over 50% support some form of JPEG video transmission, and 18% support H.264. Only about 4% of devices on the market produce some other format
of video1. For maximum interoperability, many cameras support both JPEG transmission and one other, more bandwidth-effi cient codec. JPEG is a popular “lowest common denominator” video codec in IP cameras because support for decompressing JPEGs is built into virtually all web browsers.
Standard Solutions in Silicon
Another factor contributing to increased support for standard video codecs in IP cameras is the availability of ASIC components that implement high-performance standard codecs, such as IndigoVision’s IV8103 MPEG-4 chip and HiSilicon’s Hi3510 H.264 chip. ASIC technology allows computationally intense video compression operations to be performed with less power and at lower hardware cost per camera. The improved video quality, reduced data rate requirements, and lower cost of such ASIC-based cameras is driving older, programmable DSP-based camera designs into obsolescence.
Integration Challenges
NVR manufacturers pursue interoperability by testing their software on dif ferent cameras and augmenting their camera driver software as necessary. An NVR package may include hundreds of software drivers for different camera models. Besides decoding the video stream, NVR software must also be able to start and stop a video stream, and may provide other controls such as pan, tilt, and image characteristics. At present, many of these additional controls have proprietary implementations on each manufacturer’s brand of camera, which causes difficulty for NVR vendors and systems integrators. An NVR developer must obtain the communications protocol for each camera model from the manufacturer or develop their software to use the manufacturer’s proprietary software developers kit. This complexity led to a recent industry effort spearheaded by Axis, Bosch and Sony to standardize interfaces for network video products.
Fortunately, the syntax of video bitstream itself tends to vary much less from manufacturer to manufacturer because of the market-driven popularity of standard video codec implementations.
File Formats
Network video software such as an NVR may store video to a non-volatile file in a variety of ways. Typically, the video data will not be recompressed, as this would result in quality reduction and require significant processing resources, but the video data may be wrapped in either a proprietary or standard file container. Some NVR application requirements such as continuous recording, simultaneous recording/playback with time shift, multiplexing of many cameras, and storage of metadata may compel the use of a proprietary container file for surveillance data storage. However, most NVR systems allow the export of video clips to standard file formats. If the original recording was made using a standard video codec such as MPEG-4 Part 2 or H.264, it is technically feasible for the expor ted clip to be made using an appropriate standard file container (such as MP4) without recompression. Some NVR products allow optional reformatting and/or recompressing the video to a different codec when exporting a clip. Care should be taken to avoid such conversions where the quality of the exported clip is important.
The Future
At the time of this writing, many IP camera manufacturers (such as Axis Communications) have announced new product lines based exclusively on H.264 ASIC components. H.264 provides superior video compression efficiency and quality compared to other standard codecs, is used by many HD camcorders and is supported by Blu-ray disc players and many network-attached media extenders. This common codec provides the capability for both standard and high definition video to be transported from cameras to computers and consumer television components for archival and playback without any recompression artifacts. It is therefore likely that H.264 will gradually replace MPEG-4 Part 2 for IP video applications.
About the Author
Steven Goodridge, Ph.D., develops digital video surveillance and forensics technology at Signalscape, Inc. in Cary, North Carolina.
