P&L E-Communications, LLC Briefs Force Protection for enhanced video surveillance

Source: Businesswire (04/19/06)

Rochester, N.Y. (Business Wire) ---April 19, 2006---PL E-Communications, LLC, a leader in research and development of automated video content analysis software briefed representatives of the Integrated Base Defense Surveillance Systems (IBDDS) Force Protection Systems program office at ESC on the successful completion of preliminary tests of their Target Motion Cueing (TMC) product at Eglin, AFB and progress for finalizing the first phase of the Smart Camera/False Alarm Reduction (SC/FAR) project at Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL) Rome Research Site.

SC/FAR reduces staff required for monitoring as well as increases the probability of detection while minimizing detection time. This technology is useful for automating detection and cueing in military and law enforcement surveillance activities. Current state of the art for image surveillance includes pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras and low light level cameras integrated with seismic detection systems. PTZ and low light level camera technologies show the most promise for large-scale standoff detection and cueing to possible security threats but have drawbacks and limitations. They minimize the required monitoring force, but both systems require a man in the loop for detection.

The successful test, known as live video testing, was performed by a team of engineers at the Eglin AFB test area and included scripted intrusions and target of opportunity tests of PLE’s commercially available TMC automated video analysis software which provided significant reduction of nuisance and false alarms in existing video streams.

Based on PLE’s analysis and experiments, many variable thresholds have been characterized for control of the TMC to allow it to be a useful enhancement to existing video surveillance systems that can be provide analysis of video scenes "on the fly" without any prior knowledge of the scene space being surveyed.

During the performance of preliminary tests, it was noted that TMC could be integrated with existing systems to significantly reduce false alarms in a militarily relevant environment. "The TMC technology provides an "incremental improvement" to existing IBDDS VMD systems", said Mr. Darrell A. Gillman, Engineer Eglin Division. A scheduled test of the TMC is being put on-line now at the offices of Force Protection at ESC.

PLE is currently under contract to complete the characterization of the TMC for Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL) and the project is continued through 2007.