Situational Awareness and IP Technolgy

Is it just me, or does it seem as if each morning we turn on the news only to find yet another incidence of first responders selflessly putting their lives on the line to remedy a situation. Some days it's a man-made tragedy

like a mass shooting or a hostage taking, other times it's an act of nature like a mud slide, sink hole or a wildfire roaring out of control as it edges ever nearer to hillside homes. We're seeing the big picture, the situation from all angles, but have you ever thought what it's like for the individual responder,  limited to only what his five senses tell him from one moment to the next?  That's why Situational Awareness is of critical importance.

The Bubble

In it's training materials the United States Coast Guard defines situational awareness as

"the ability to identify, process, and comprehend the critical elements of information about what is happening to the team with regards to the mission. More simply it's knowing what is going on around you." (That's their italics)

 Then they go on to elaborate "when we lose the bubble, i.e., situational awareness, we increase the potential for human error."

Putting Situational Awareness into Action

Situational awareness depends on the synchronization of three components


The People

It is critical that the those to whom it falls to make critical decisions, at a fast pace, get the right information, analyze it, and predict what may happen next. In most situations, several agencies are in the midst of things - police, fire, EMT's, maybe military. If the situation is to be brought to as safe a conclusion as possible, they must coordinate their courses of action.




The Technology
Having technology in place is the best way to

•  discover where things or people are,
•  gather information from several sources
•  enable critical decision making

IP cameras 

If mounted in a locked-down building, IP camera systems can allow responders to keep track of  the whereabouts of an armed individual. If any wireless cameras are  in place to observe wildlife in preserves or parks near a wildfire, they can be used to provide information as to the direction a fire is taking or its level of containment.

Thermal Imaging

Thermal Imaging cameras, since they work by mapping images based on the detection of heat do not require light. A thermal imaging camera would be of use in areas where dense smoke keeps out light. They would

also be invaluable in a darkened building, as would I-R cameras.

Infra-red cameras

I-R cameras do need  light, the light supplied by infra-red illuminators, but since this form of light is invisible
to the human eye, can be used in a dark building without the intruder being aware of its presence.

License Plate Recognition

A synchronized License Plate Recognition system can be used to identify any suspicious cars parked in the

area . A license plate reader would record the number, extract the alpha-numeric information and compare it to a database containing license plate numbers of suspected terrorists or traffic scofflaws. In addition it may be possible to retrieve time-synchronized video of the car in question.

IP Network Attached Paging and Intercom

If a campus wide PA over IP  intercom system, which connects to the ethernet school system, is in palace SWAT teams could stay in contact with personnel in the school or even negotiate with the intruder

The Process

Most courses of action that turn out to be erroneous can be blamed on a lack of, or lapse in, situational awareness.Because any emergency situation can change from second to second, it is  important for responders to communicate with each other and stay connected to their technology. Kintronics has outfitted the military, police departments, fire departments and municipalities of all sizes with  IP surveillance camera systems. Should you need information about these, IP door access control or Emergency Paging over IP,  call 914-944-3425 to speak to an engineer or fill out an information request form

Thermal Imaging. Coming to Your Life Anytime Soon?

Automobiles, televisions, mobile phones, microwave ovens, computers. What do these items have in common?

They once were affordable only for the rich, but thanks to mass production methods, can now be found in virtually every home.  Soon we maybe adding thermal imaging/night vision items to the list.

Thermal Imaging

Thermal imaging works in the absence of light since it uses heat radiation to map out the form of objects or living beings. Since virtually everything on the planet radiates heat, thermal imaging works anywhere. Up until now, expensive manufacturing has confined the technology to the military, researchers, and meteorologists, but recently Raytheon announced it has come up with a technique that drastically reduces cost.



Wafer Level Packaging

Raytheon, taking a cue from the process by which semiconductors are manufactured - with a number of computer chips built simultaneously and embedded in grid formation on batches of silicon wafers before ultimately being cut  into individual pieces -  is experimenting with wafer level packaging for thermal sensors.

What they have come up with is a similar technique of wafer level packaging that entails embedding thousands of tiny windows and thermal detectors, known collectively as microbolometers, on a flat surface.Each microbolometer measures 17 microns wide which is one-fifth the width of a human hair. Anywhere from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of microbolometers can go into a thermal sensor and each wafer can yield tens of thousands of sensors. So it's easy to see how converting from the old process of sensor assembly requiring 15 parts handled separately  to wafer level packaging, involving two, can speed up manufacturing while lowering its cost.

Thermal Imaging -  Coming to a Device Near You
Raytheon, for the most part, concentrates on the military sector. Using the old process, their Land Warfare Systems Group has supplied troops with over 40,000 thermal sensor weapon sights. With wafer packaging, it's possible to bring down the present costly price of manufacturing thermal sensors, and be able to provide  a lighter, less expensive sensor to every soldier who needs one.

Thermal Products of the Near Future? 
If  and when wafer management packaging can bring prices down to a viable price point who knows what commercial applications Raytheon's Vision Systems division will come up with.

Some car manufacturers currently offer the option of a heads up display that uses thermal sensors to detect deer or people in the road at night. Smaller chips could produce sensors that improve  image resolution   

Presently, cars use a motion or weight detector to turn on and adjust the airbag system. Might automotive engineers of the future  employ thermal imaging to sense whether the added weight is that of a person or a bag of dog food and employ the air bag accordingly?

Thermal imaging is already used in police work, but how about a sensor that pursuing officers could use to trace a fugitive's path using the heat radiated by his invisible foot steps?

How about enhancing flashlights with heat sensing detectors that would appeal to cave explorers, or even a pet owner, searching for a lost dog in the woods, or a cat hiding under the deck?


Yes, the future holds promise for commercial thermal heat sensors and Kintronics will keep an eye on all developing products. Meanwhile we are the source for IP camera systems of all types as well as thermal imaging camera systems. If you're interested in finding out more, just fill out an information request form or call 914-944-3425 to speak to a sales engineer.

Poachers Caught in a Trap.......A Camera Trap

One thing we've found when surfing the media for IP camera surveillance systems in the news is that you never know where in the world a story will transport you. This week we found ourselves in Malawi at the Wildlife Institute where, according to Earthwatch Institute, two animal poachers were caught in a trap.This wasn't the type of trap you would expect, it was a camera trap.
Majete


Researchers who work at the Animals of Malawi in the Majete Reserve Expedition had placed remote digital cameras, equipped with motion detectors to snap and save photos of anything that moved in their fields of sight. They dubbed them camera traps. The cameras kept watch 24 hours a day allowing team members to observe resident animals in their surroundings without frightening them away.They turned out to be extremely effective traps, amassing over 40,000 photographs!

One day, sorting through photos revealed the presence of an unexpected species - two members of the genus, homo sapiens! Camera set up opposite a watering hole in the far northwestern reaches of the preserve had caught two men who weren't wearing park service uniforms and were carrying weapons. They appeared to be hunting or possibly checking illegal snare traps they might have set. At any rate, since they had no legitimate business in the park, the research team sent the photos to African Parks, the agency that manages the reserve.

While the park service circulated the photos around the villages in the vicinity of the park, the researchers began to worry about an unwanted side effect. Now that the presence of so many expensive cameras was becoming public knowledge, might they the cams be stolen. Fighting fire with fire, they installed additional cameras to cover the entire park.

Most likely, just the knowledge that the area was camera trapped scared off any would-be poachers, for no more unauthorized humans were observed. However the additional cameras turned out to be well worth the expense for, lo and behold, they turned out to be virtual census takers, revealing  valuable information regarding the wildlife population.

 For one thing, more bush pigs lived on the preserve than previously thought.

And as for spotted hyenas, while the researchers had been going on the premise that eight or so roamed Majete, more than thirty appeared in various shots, and thanks to the cameras 'resolutions, could be differentiated by their markings.

Also "caught" were two species, previously not thought to be living there, the serval and the caracal, two feline-type predators.

Since a vital part of maintaining a preserve like Majete, is managing the animal population, this new information arrived just in time. The management had been looking at adding to the lion population, but, thanks to the cameras, it was becoming apparent that  the predator/prey balance was different than they'd thought. Thus the plan was put on hold so they could further study the hyena population.


Looking at the evidence it appeared  that, in contrast to hyenas' usual role as scavengers, the Majete hyenas appeared to be hunters.

As for the poachers, the circulated photos brought forth a villager who recognized them. The police were called in arrest the two suspects but could not find the firearms, nor would the two reveal where they'd hidden them. That left the photographs as the only evidence to go on. Fortunately the high resolution images was sufficient to win a double conviction

•  illegally entering a protected area,
•  illegally carrying a weapon into a protected area. 

Given a choice of a fine of 20,000 Malawi Kracha or eight months is prison, the convicted men chose to pay the fine, the equivalent of 50 American dollars.

Members of Animals of Malawi in the Majete Reserve Expedition were disappointed by the paltry punishment but hope the incident discourages any future poaching attempts by publicizing the presence of   the camera traps. They also look at the experience as  having assisted then in that they now have the additional cameras to aid in their primary mission - understanding the animals of Majete.

We can't help but imagine, given the effective results attained by the digital cameras, how much better IP  cameras might serve them in studying wildlife With network connectivity, staff members might view the footage from their computers or mobile devices, rather than having to spend time that could be spent in other pursuits,  sifting  through photographs. And when frame rate is considered, IP cameras would undoubtedly capture much that still photos miss.

Kintronics has wide experience in assisting agencies and individuals  interested in observing wild life. We've been instrumental in installing eagle cameras in Idaho as well as hawk cams in New York's Washington Square. If you need help in selecting an IP security camera for any purpose, call 914-944-3425 to speak to a Kintronics sales engineer or fill out an information request form.

Wide Area Surveillance or IP Camera System - Different Strokes for Different Folks

The Center for Investigative Reporting recently revealed that the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is trying out a type of surveillance, called Wide Area Surveillance to monitor Compton, an area where residents have to put up with a high incidence of crime.

In the interest of monitoring the city in real time, they are using several high-powered surveillance cameras affixed to the belly of a small civilian plane. As the plane flies over Compton, the cameras will streaming video  or as the CIR quipped, picture "a sort of a Google Earth with a rewind button and the ability to play back the movements of cars and people as they scurry about the city."

The idea is to keep the city in their sights at all times so that when a crime is reported, they can zoom in and monitor the situation, follow suspects,and gather whatever information they can to hand over to investigation teams on the ground.

So how do Wide Area Surveillance systems measure up to ground-based IP camera surveillance systems?

Wide Area Surveillance
WAS was able to carry out large scale airborne patrols, covering large swaths of the city providing  providing real time surveillance and supplying valuable leads to officers patrolling the streets, the cameras' fields of view left a lot to be desired. In one case, a necklace snatching on the street was reported, and the plane was able to capture the fleeing suspect's car on camera until...... the car drove out of camera range.

WAS can be of forensic value in that its stored video can be rewound to discover a perpetrator's starting point ,his route, where and with whom  he may have met up.

It can even be used internally to look into whether correct police procedures are being followed.
However when it comes to clarity and resolution,  the images the cameras produced are not of sufficient resolution to be stand up in court.

IP Camera Systems
Since they are ground-based cameras, they cannot cover the whole city at once,  but the images  the high-resolution IP security cameras do capture are of superior resolution to those of the airborne cameras. Furthermore, the digital cameras have the capacity to zoom in on faces or other identifying details, which the plane's cameras could not. As a result, police and district attorneys are able to submit them as identifying evidence in court.

In a Perfect  Surveillance World
In a world where municipalities had unlimited funds and access to all the latest technology, we might turn on the news and hear the following  account of how police managed to apprehend a suspect.

• A male suspect robs a bank. He is caught on IP camera video as he exits.
• A plane equipped with wide area surveillance cameras since it is always in "the right spot" is able to follow and film his fleeing car, a red Mazda, while keeping police up to date on his route of flight.
• But then, the robber drives into a municipal garage and manages to elude both airborne and on-the ground police.
• In reviewing the WAS video, the police discover he passed under a traffic camera, that since he was speeding, captured his license plate number, speed, date, and time.
• Thanks to License Plate Technology, police determine that the Mazda is registered to a certain B.C. McThief who lives at 7822 742 Street.
• Police go to 7822 742 street and seeing the Mazda parked in front,  stage a stake out, waiting for Mr McThief to emerge so they can see if he fits the image captured on the bank's IP security camera.
• He does.
• They take him into custody.

Kintronics doesn't specialize in WAS but they are the experts in IP technolgy. If you want information about IP camera systems, call Kintronics at 914-944-3425 and speak to a sales engineer, or if you prefer, fill out an information request form.

A Tale of Two Serial Shooters and How their License Plates Did Them In

Kansas City, Missouri 
March 29, 2014  - April 17, 2014

No one could blame  Kansas City Missouri drivers for distracted driving last month. It's hard to keep your eyes trained on the road when  the driver in the car overtaking you just might have a .380 caliber gun trained on you. It began in March when a string of calls started coming in to the police, with drivers reporting they'd been shot at while negotiating the maze of freeway intersections south of the city.

When I heard of the Kansas City incidents  I instantly identified with the fear and paranoia. It took me back to July 1976 to August 1977, when an unknown gunman was using a .44 caliber handgun to randomly gun down  young women with long blond hair and their dates. You may have heard of him - Son of Sam  It didn't help matters that I fit the profile.  Luckily for me, I didn't know, until he was captured, that he lived just across town from me in Yonkers. NY.

The Kansas City shooter is now behind bars, as is Son of Sam. In both cases, it was a female witness who contacted police and supplied them with their first tangible lead, a license plate number which they were able to link to a car and the name of the man who would be apprehended in it.  In Kansas City it was  

Mohammed Pedro Whitaker in his green Dodge Neon,

 and in New York,

David Berkowitz in his Ford Galaxy

.

Son of Sam

New York City
July 29, 1976 -  August 10, 1977

Although Berkowitz had a penchant for writing anonymous rambling satanic letters to neighbors, a New York City police detective, and a newspaper columnist, no connection was made until a woman who'd encountered him while walking her dog put two-and-two together, connecting the man in the shadows with the shady smile, and the pop pop she'd heard when she was safely inside her apartment, to the shootings in the news the next day.  This led the NYPD to look into parking tickets issued on her street that night. They sorted through the files manually and set out to investigate all the drivers, but never got around to the last ticket, the one left on a Ford Galaxy whose owner David Berkowitz lived in Yonkers, just north of the city.

Meanwhile  in Yonkers, the Yonkers PD,  and  the recipients of his rambling satanic letters were connecting dots that led them to a strange young man who'd moved out of his apartment, leaving no forwarding address, and a whole different set of  crimes

• One  recipient happened to be his former landlord, a man named Sam whose dog had been shot after the now-departed tenant had complained about his barking. 

• Another recipient had recently come upon and put out an arson fire before reporting it to the police.The incident had prompted a letter from his new upstairs neighbor, whose handwriting was identical to that of the other letters.

 This last letter included the cryptic words, "yes I am the killer, but you command the killings." The sender's name was David Berkowitz.

Sam. A cryptic confession. The shooting of a dog

It took a bit of convincing before the YPD was able to persuade the NYPD, who, in their defense, were drowning in a sea of  false leads, to cross city limits and see what they had up in Yonkers.After all, didn't they already have a name,"Berkowitz" and a car, the Ford Galaxy.

A team of undercover New York City detectives arrived at the building.Sitting outside was the Galaxy. It took several hours of patient observation, but finally a man emerged from the building and got into the car. The detectives descended on him and when they asked him who he was, he smiled and said 'You know who I am. I'm Sam, David Berkowitz."

The Kansas City Shooter
This story is much shorter. After the first couple of shootings, the Kansas City Shooter was predictable. Dressed in a black hoodie and sunglasses, he'd fire .380 caliber bullets at cars, as they exited freeways or negotiated splits and merges. Twelve drivers reported being shot at, two being actually hit, and in another case. a bullet was found to have pierced the car's door, narrowly missing a young girl. As the city-wide fear mounted, a woman realized she may have been  targeted early on, before he'd made a name for himself.
 According to the Los Angeles Times, the  driver of a green Dodge Neon had stopped short in front of her in late March, and turned to stare, then drove alongside her towards the point where the two lanes merged. Rather than pull in front of him, she braked abruptly, and he had to go ahead. This gave her a chance to note his out-of-state Illinois license plate number.  That was all the police needed. The date was April 9. They took Whitaker into custody April 17.

License Plate Recognition to the Rescue
You may be wondering why it was that Berkowitz, who shot 13 victims, six of whom died, was able to continue his rampage for over a year while Whitaker was apprehended in less than three weeks.  It wasn't a matter of police efficiency or inefficiency. What made the difference was a technology that wasn't available in the 1970's. License Plate Recognition.

Since the Kansas City Police Department was using twelve cars equipped with automated license plate readers, they were able to find they had the information on the plates. With three digital or IP cameras mounted to the roof of each car, they had already come upon the Dodge in their everyday patrols so its  license plate was already in their database along with the relevant GPS positioning and date.

According to the Times, one images showed the car in front of a house in a suburb of Kansas City, but the Illinois license plate was attached to a different car. Another image showed the plate less Dodge, sitting in the driveway next to yet another car bearing the plates.

Having all the probable cause they needed, the police obtained a warrant to place a GPS tracking system on the car, and requested that Sprint allow them to "ping" Whitaker's cellphone. Thus they were able to place a 24 hour surveillance detail on him that, over the next few days,  observed him

• try and fail to purchase a gun from a man in a parking lot 
• enter a Walmart where he looked at ammunition .
• change lanes erratically on area freeways
• come to a sudden stop in front of one of the surveillance cars and turn to stare as the officer behind the wheel avoided him.
• Dash across lanes of traffic to follow closely on the tail of a Honda.

A day after this last incident, they arrested him.

Today the NYPD has several hundred license plate readers roaming the five boroughs. If David Berkowitz had struck today, the Son of Sam story would have been a whole lot shorter.

If you want a detailed account of the Son of Sam tragedy I recommend the website, Crime Library which I visited in order fill in the moth holes in my memory.

On the other hand, if you're looking for information on IP Cameras or license plate readers, call  Kintronics at 914-944-3425 to speak to a sales engineer, or fill out a handy information request form.