Surveillance video: More than just watching

Popular Mechanics reported that in 2007 there were 30 million surveillance cameras in the United States. That's a lot of very, very boring and dumb video feeds.

However, a couple of vendors are trying to smarten up those broadcasts and make them much more interesting.

Matt Steinfort, CEO of Envysion Inc. in Louisville, Colo., describes his company's technology as "managed video as a service." A four-camera set up with a local appliance gets installed at your site for $850; you pay $160 per month thereafter. But Envysion Video gives you much more than fodder for the Evening News' roundup of bandits with bags of bucks to go.

Steinfort demonstrates how you can link video with external data sources, such as point-of-sale data. That's useful if you want to literally watch how a cashier handled a specific exchange with a customer.

The "motion search" feature lets you highlight an object in an area shown in a video. Then Envysion Video will only display activity at that object during the time parameters that you set.

Because it's a service, Envysion Video can be accessed from anywhere, which means area, regional and national managers for, say, a restaurant chain can watch how well staff are following company policy or slapping together the latest recipe from the corporate kitchen.

The entry-level appliance starts with 320 GB of storage, plenty, Steinfort says, to hold 30 days of video feeds. Managers can watch multiple feeds from different stores simultaneously from a browser. And Steinfort claims his system has been certified as compliant with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard.

He says down the road the company will introduce support for digital cameras and the company is beginning to research the viability of including audio feeds with the video.

Across the border in Waterloo, Ont., Marc Holtenhoff, CEO of Aimetis Corp., says one of the problems with surveillance cameras stems from those whose job it is to watch the monitors. "Monitor fatigue" is a widely reported condition among security guards, which he says, Aimetis resolves.

According to Holtenhoff, the company's Symphony software uses analytics on video feeds and applies polices you set when specific situations arise and only then sends alerts. For example, Symphony can detect if a figure in a video feed has surpassed a loitering limit you have established for a restricted area and can notify the right guard on duty.

You also can have Symphony count the number of people coming and going from a given portal. It can distinguish between object types, so if you're watching for people on, say, subway train tracks, it won't send false alarms when nearby trees sway in the breeze.

Holtenhoff says Aimetis is developing video-based analytics to give real-time data on passenger trains to direct travelers to cars with the most available seats.

Symphony works with more than 20 models of analog and digital cameras. Pricing starts at $89 per camera.

These video tools may not turn you into Steven Spielberg, but what you produce can't be any worse than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.