Detecting Humans
New VideoIQ minimizes false alarm detection with 95 percent accuracy

By Darren Nicholson

The goal of most closed circuit television systems is to search and detect an unauthorized person, someone who is where he shouldn't be.

However, when we define the technologies used to find those people, we do not use words such as "human" or "person." We use terms like motion detection, passive infrared (PIR), heat sensing and other words that have nothing to do with human beings. Repeatedly, new technologies are introduced or enhanced that promise to protect assets and facilities from intruders and crooks. Yet, over and over again, these promised solutions fail for a very common reason: They don't detect humans. They only detect movement or things associated with humans.

Unfortunately in dynamic areas, like the outdoors, the technology breaks down. Yes, it's doing what it's supposed to be doing (and doing it well): catching out-of-the-norm movements. However, instead of denoting the presence of people, the technology is actually capturing falling rain, snow, swaying trees or moving automobiles--wasting time with a myriad of false reads.

However, that has changed with GE Interlogix' introduction of VideoIQ, unveiled in March at the ISC West Expo in Las Vegas. This new surveillance technology processes images from surveillance cameras and detects the actual presence of people in dynamic indoor and outdoor environments. It tells operators when it spots people, even where they're not supposed to be, and draws a red box around them on the monitor screen.

Accurately Detects Humans

Unlike conventional motion detectors, VideoIQ uses sophisticated video analysis algorithms to make accurate decisions about objects in a camera scene. It is not affected by factors that normally plague traditional motion detection systems. It actually distinguishes between humans and other moving objects, like animals and rippling water. Effectiveness is not negated by poor field-of-view illumination or transient lighting changes.

This new technology actually studies its environment. VideoIQ essentially understands the conceptual content of a field-of-view, such as background, foreground and types of objects present. This lets the system make intelligent decisions that determine whether or not events in a camera's field-of-view are human related.

Adds Video Verification to Surveillance Applications

As a result, VideoIQ minimizes false detection, even under difficult situations, saving users countless dollars, especially if guards must be sent to verify intrusions or, as in many cities, police will not intervene without break-in substantiation. It purges systems of the false alarms caused by video motion detectors, PIR sensors and fence protection devices that are sensitive to changes in the conditions to which they have been tuned to function.

Applications include airport gates, cell towers, construction sites, equipment storage yards, automobile dealerships, hotel swimming pools, parking lots, utility substations and water facilities.

Besides reducing or eliminating false alarms, VideoIQ works seamlessly with GE Interlogix video multiplexer/digital recorders (DVMR), adding more dimensions to alarm processing and digital recording. By alerting operators to the presence of people in monitored areas, guards only look at pertinent video, boosting productivity by monitoring many more cameras. Security personnel can be quickly notified via alarm, pager or e-mail should human intrusion occur.

VideoIQ also enables fast retrieval of human-related events. It substantially increases video storage capacities by limiting recording to only those moments when human-related activities occur.

In future updates, VideoIQ will let operators track a specific human, either live or recorded. The system teaches itself all the attributes necessary to distinguish a selected individual, even in the presence of other human objects. VideoIQ will watch only that person and even handoff the target from camera to camera, a boon especially for managers in retail outlets.

Easy Installation and Configuration

It's quite simple to implement the human detection solution. It is designed to work with virtually any camera configuration, whether color, black and white, low light, stationary or day/night. Upon installing cameras, their video outputs should be connected to the DVMR. The installer then loops the DVMR video inputs to a quad, connects the quad's output to a VideoIQ unit, and connects communications cables between the VideoIQ unit and the DVMR.

To configure the software, the user employs simple menus and other familiar tools to set up the system to match the application. Users can even set up multiple regions of interest to ensure VideoIQ generates an alert only when people enter restricted areas.

Most important, users do not need to program backgrounds. The technology teaches itself. When exposed to a new scene, it learns very quickly to ignore repetitive background motions. Backgrounds do not need to be reprogrammed. Later, if a user wants to change a camera's field-of-view, as before, VideoIQ trains itself.

If detecting the presence of people is important but it is not feasible to supervise the area personally or continuously watch surveillance video, VideoIQ eliminates a concern of many security professionals.

Darren Nicholson is vice president of marketing for GE Interlogix Video Systems Group. He can be reached at (714) 755-1055 or darren.nicholson@ge.com.