Surveillance

We’re both a watched and watchful society. In spite of the Big Brother overtones, the reality is many like the comfort and sense of secureness that video surveillance brings. And where would reality TV be without security cameras posted on just about every street corner. In a similar fashion, the Archerfish Mobile Video Intelligence surveillance system empowers us to keep a close eye – some might say, spy – on what we value whether it’s our kids, home, business. The difference with the Archerfish system is that alerts you only when you decide something’s up. Read More

Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies latest hydrogen fuel cell release is designed as a drop-in replacement for battery packs used in small electric Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). Weighing 4.4lbs (2kg) and storing 900Wh of usable electric energy, the Aeropak can to increase flight endurance by up to 300% over lithium batteries, meaning longer range missions and more energy to run on-board cameras and sensors. Read More

Imagine being able to pinpoint an enemy shooter in difficult terrain with such deadly accuracy that you can see whether they are kneeling or standing and not only what kind of weapon they are firing but the caliber too. Well, engineers at Vanderbilt University's Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) have developed such a system by turning soldiers' combat helmets into "smart nodes" in a wireless sensor network. Read More

Boeing's P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine and long-range surveillance aircraft has completed its first flight. In the latest development milestone for the plane scheduled to replace the P-3 Orion, the T-1 test aircraft completed a series of systems checks during three hours and 31 minutes in the skies above Seattle on April 25. Read More

While Orwell’s 1984 suggested that human surveillance and tracking would be an integral part of a dystopian future, the reality looks to be quite different, with people quickly embracing GPS technology and the myriad of uses such technology provides. The last few years has seen a range of tracking devices that use GPS to keep track of everything from products and pets to loved ones. The latest player to enter the field is South Korea electronics company Cuman with its range of tracking devices, which picked up the Editor’s List Award recently at CeBIT 2009. Read More

AeroVironment's Raven UAV system has been used to demonstrate the viability of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as a low-cost surveillance alternative in a continuous 30-hour persistent surveillance test flight. Conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Army Product Manager for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (SUAS), the demonstration involved unbroken surveillance of a target site using one standard production Raven RQ-11B baseline system (three aircraft and two ground control stations) operated by two-person crews working in eight-hour shifts. Read More

Dashboard cameras mounted on police vehicles have proven their worth in backing up courtroom testimony by providing a video record of incidents – as well as giving reality cop shows a veritable wealth of real life footage. Now a new product from Taser International, the company responsible for the electroshock weapon that bears that name, takes the idea one step further by capturing video and audio of incidents from the visual perspective of the responding officer. Read More

You could be forgiven for thinking Andrew Hicks is obsessed with his own reflection, but it’s the mirror itself which attracts the interest of this mathematician from Drexel University, Philadelphia. Hicks has used computer algorithms to generate a mirror that produces a mirror image that isn’t a mirror image, making it possible to read reflected text normally. Read More

December 22, 2008 Torrey Pines Logic has designed an optical system that allows people to speak to the person they’re looking at. The LightSpeed uses infrared LEDs to transmit the wearer’s voice via a secure optical beam to another LightSpeed model. The data channel used by the binoculars can accommodate Ethernet, video streaming and multi-channel audio data, and the devices transmit data at 1Mpbs, at distances exceeding 5km. Read More