Video Surveillance System

Surveillance is essentially the process of monitoring activities and/or behavior of a suspect or of a place (with the intention of supervising it from security point of view), usually done in a covert manner. In fact, surveillance originates from the French word which means ‘watching over’. “Video Surveillance System” comprise of video cameras, usually supported with a recording device. Such type of surveillance involves expensive sets of digital equipment. This security process also requires a security guard to monitor the camera footage captured through the video cameras.

Now-a-days, use of “Video Surveillance System” is an important security requirement for monitoring public activity in shopping malls, banks, casinos, military establishments, railway platforms, subways, hospital premises, manufacturing unit premises, etc. Many reported cases of shop lifting and theft have been easily solved and the culprits brought to justice with the help of captured video camera footage of the culprits at the time of committing the crime.

Closed-Circuit TeleVision (CCTV) involves the use of video cameras to send signals at a single monitoring place. Over the years, this form of security measure has grown to be simple and inexpensive. Hence, today, it is commonplace to use “Video Surveillance System”even in home security systems. Recent advancements in digital technologies also make the analysis of the surveillance footage much easier. Automated software’s can seamlessly organize surveillance footage into an indexed database, which can then be queried upon using powerful image processing and comparison tools. With the help of motion detectors, the amount of surveillance footage captured can also be brought down.

Overuse of “Video Surveillance System” has recently triggered off into a snowball debate regarding security versus privacy. People opposing the over use of surveillance base their argument on loss of privacy and freedom of expression. Proponents of “Video Surveillance System”have based their arguments on the fact that surveillance is mostly utilized to monitor activity in a public place, where an individual’s right to privacy can be outweighed by the general gathering’s security from people with malicious intent. Several countries have invested heavily in this security measure. Several high profile projects involving setting up of “Video Surveillance System”, such as Golden Shield Project – China, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) projects – US are underway today.