Image capture even in the dark. The surveillance system can capture video images at night without the need for an expensive day/night camera. The cameras have an integrated passive infrared (PIR) sensor along with LED lighting and a standard CMOS sensor. The PIR sensor detects human movement, which triggers the operation of the camera. The in-built LEDs glow to illuminate the scene and provide a clear and full-colour video output. In the event of a power cut too, the camera continues to capture images. Once the network restores, the stored data is streamed to the master camera and the collected feed is then streamed via the master camera to the visual medium.
What’s most innovative
The company has filed four patents on innovations related to the video surveillance system. The patents cover operational analytics that enable optimal utilisation of power, storage and network bandwidth, and distributed video surveillance. Claims Krishna, “Algorithms that we have built for power optimisation and intelligence distribution across the network is something which has not been reported so far by any other company.”
Tech challenges
Krishna recalls and shares a couple of challenges that the team faced during the process of product development. “A team of twelve engineers (hardware and software) worked on this technology for over a year and most of the challenges related to hardware and software co-design. Close collaboration between the hardware and software teams was essential. This requirement was addressed by ensuring that all design decisions were taken jointly and all features were analysed and reviewed jointly to understand the impact of each new addition on hardware and software components.”
Another challenge related to the required expertise and skill-set of the team of engineers. “Since the underlying operating system in use is Linux, the biggest challenge was to put in place a team that was well-trained and knowledgeable in embedded Linux. This continues to be a challenge till date,” says Krishna.
Going forward…
Currently, each camera in the Silvan video surveillance system can do only one type of event detection, based on the algorithm that specifies the event for which the alert is to be generated. But going forward, the Silvan team is working on making the cameras smarter by embedding intelligence that enables each camera to handle complex scenarios and generate alerts for up to three events.
In the face of the security threats that surround us, this is surely going to be a solution to look forward to!
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The author is an assistant editor at EFY
