Sunday, February 17, 2008

City-wide surveillance using ONLY one camera

While attending the ISC West security show in Las Vegas this past year, I noticed a new IP Camera vendor that was much different than the hundreds of others at the show. Their name is Avigilon. Their product is a new megapixel IP camera that weighs in with a monster 16MP 30 Frame per second CCD. The application is wide area surveillance. The possibilities are endless. Up until the introduction of this product, the closest competition would be that of either IQ Invision's 7MP CCTV camera, or perhaps the Arecont 4MP IP camera. This one is a complete game changer. Let's just imagine the possibilities for a moment. One 16 megapixel cctv camera, one football field, and you have instant replays at 30 FPS of the entire arena. So, yep, he caught the ball, oh and that guy up in the nosebleed section, ya, he spilled mustard on his shirt too. Yes, they can zoom in on the crowd now you say. Yes they can, but not with one camera that is also recording EVERYTHING else outside of the zoomed area. That's the beauty of megapixel IP cameras. See the video for a better description here: http://avigilon.com/presentations/overview.html and view the camera details here: http://avigilon.com

Ok, so let's take it one step further. Add one part 16MP security camera, one part 27x PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) cage, mix with a commercial micro satellite and have yourself one instant corporate spy satellite to record all of the city of, oh I dunno, say Chicago, in real time. Reminds me the movie DeJa Vu, just without all the time travel drama. Sure the resolution would degrade with zoom, but this setup would still rival many of our own older military spy satellites. Soon, I predict an age of corporate spy satellites will emerge. And you thought that Kroger card was intruding your privacy? Just wait until they send you satellite footage of that gallon of milk you left in the cart as a courtesy notice. -TB

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