That was one among the many famous one liners of the former first lady of Philippines while justifying her infamous illegal hoarding of wealth accrued during her zenith of yesteryear power. In spite of coming from a high society swindler, the statement blatantly reveals the 'psyche' of a determined criminal who's citing of, 'survival' being the cause for her actions makes one thoughtful. 'Survival' most times tend to be as much a concern for the perpetrator of crime, as is for his/her victim. And, it is just here technology comes to play in providing an edge to a probable 'victim', who becomes fitter for survival than the perpetrator. A fast paced world that is bereft of concern for fellow
human has become a fertile ground for hostility and crime. With the free availability and flaunting of lethal weapons with more and more stopping power, the modern day criminal has become far too confident of his safety during his fight for 'survival'. With such high determina tion and abilities wielded by criminals, the priority of any credible security and surveillance system is in keeping a potential firebrand at bay, while still be able to monitor him, apart from responding and averting potential threats he could cause with immediate and appropr iate follow up actions. And today 'Surveillance technology' is capable of arming premises with the advantage of active monitoring and esponse to potential and perceived threats apart from a video evidence for later use. And these advantages are so attractive that in a few years time urveillance systems' would become the benchmark for any modern building, making it imperative for architects, engineers and contrac tors to facilitate and implement 'Surveillance Systems', based on the needs and requirements of their clients.
Tracing the Trend
Video surveillance began with the use of CCTV by US police as early as 1965. During the seventies with the arrival of analog recording technology using taped video cassette, video surveillance got a boost in terms of credibility and was used as evidence in law enforce ment, traffic control and court proceedings. But the necessity to change tapes daily or their wear out after months of reuse apart from restrictions on night or in low light condition restricted their use. Then did the Charged Coupled Device camera (CCD) arrive, which used microchip computer technology allowing low light and night recording.
The 90's saw the arrival of 'Digital Multiplexing technology' allowing surveillance in multiple locations simultaneously, with timelapse and motion-only recording, saving a lot of otherwise wasted videotape and hence affordable. With the arrival of Digital video surveillance and compact low cost hard drives capable of compression of data, year long continuous video recording became a reality. In contrast to analog video, Digital video has the clarity required for identification apart from the ability to manipulate images to enhance image quality by adding light, contrast, sharpening image, zooming in on frames etc., The demand for digital surveillance resulted in an ever-smaller, higher resolution cameras that could be hidden almost anywhere. This trend of miniaturization of hardware enlarged the possibilities of technology to unheard of levels resulting in high level of customization based on demand and value addition in a big way. For instance you can have a static camera for surveillance or load it on to a vacuum cleaner and use it for cleaning as well and going one step ahead you may attach a particle sensor to the cleaner and make it move auto matically and call it a 'Surveillance and Cleaning Robot'. Apart from these, technology has also branched resulting in areas like 'Biometric Surveillance', 'RFID Surveillance' etc., Nevertheless, however complex or sophisticated a 'surveillance system' is, the basic products don't vary much and hence an understanding of individual product and technology would provide a general idea of the Surveillancetechnology' which we try to elaborate here. To begin with let us see the variety of utility offerings in the basket of Surveillance technology'. The basic surveillance technology starts with identification of a visitor in the front door and can go as far as to systems generating alarm only when there is an abnormal activity or intention perceived by the system. With the latest wireless technology coupled with internet, multiple locations situated in different and widely varying regions could be networked, simultaneously monitored, controlled and alerted by a single service provider. A whole range of indoor and outdoor locations of metropolitan and municipal areas, highways, railways, bridges, commercial buildings, residential apartments, high security premises etc., could be centrally monitored in real time. These surveillance systems also allow you to keep a remote eye on your baby, your house, your store, surroundings apart from recording only upon detecting movements or abnormality and providing you with exact time and date for later day use. And the best part is the monitoring can be done from your mobile phone with which one can as well respond appropriately to situations. It would be quiet unbelievable that modern surveillance systems are capable of responding like human beings. In fact today's advanced technologies are capable of recognizing the hostile facial features like an abnormal and minute twitch of an intruder to generate an alarm. Such techniques in combination with wire less and internet technology is capable of simultaneous monitoring of hundreds of facilities by a single operator, reducing the manpower and maintenance cost of such systems, which take care of the cognitive part of the whole venture.
Video Surveillance
The primary security surveillance system involves the internal monitoring of activity using a LAN (Local Area Network - wired or wireless) in and around the target premises bereft of any external interference from any other signal or feed. Surveillance cameras would be placed on crucial locations and are connected to an internal or external security control center that record and monitor activity. To effectively achieve this, surveillance cameras are integrated with alarm systems, additional security elements and with secure portals to ensure
proper recognition of potential intruders. Today armed with high speed and unlimited internet connectivity video surveillance, monitoring
and response could be instituted virtually anywhere in the world, using digital streaming video. Streaming video is set up with a remote system enabling monitoring anything from anywhere around the world with Internet access, as images are video archived on the remote web server. With a high compression (1800:1 in some cases) the quality is extremely good apart from easy storage with features like motion-activation, email and mobile alerting of specific activity. With the advancement in technology, Video surveillance has gone to the next level of facial feature recognition, in not only comparing people previously enrolled in database but also to understand the moods and intentions of strangers through pre programmed attributes and alert people upon detecting an facial attribute associated with threats. This technology is so promising and almost is a basic and beginning stage of 'Artificial Intelligence' in facial recognition. Coupled with motion detectors or motion sensors the video recording or cameras themselves turn on only upon detecting a movement resulting in a big saving in power and maintenance. Another major advancement in video surveillance is the mobile video technology with its ability to stream live video to mobile phones with or without broadband or a designated network. Without broadband connectivity the video captured is uploaded to a secure server and the user is alerted through a text message enabling him to use his phone to view the streaming video from the camera. This technology also can record the video for viewing later on. Again using cameras equipped with a CPU, web server and software and hooking them on to an ethernet network or broadband connection, the video grabbed can be remotely viewed and audio heard from a 3G phone or PDA. Such technology is also capable of remote response, using the same mobile phone devices.
Biometric Surveillance
'Biometrics' is becoming a prominent technique in 'Surveillance'. Biometric technique use two major human characteristic attributes namely 'Physiological' and 'Behavioural'. Thus 'Biometrics' used in surveilance systems may identify a person through his / her physi ological characteristics viz., hand geometry, retinal scan, iris scan, fingerprint patterns, facial characteristics and DNA sequence charac teristics or through behavioral characteristics viz., keystrokes, voice prints, and hand written signature etc., for identification. In all techni ques employed in 'Biometrics' an initial enrollment process is performed in which the requisite biological information is fed into the database to facilitate comparison in the future. In Facial Recognition individuals are identified by analyzing unique characteristics like distance between the eyes, the length of the nose, angle of the jaw etc.Fingerprint Recognition is another widely used biometric authent ication method, based on the century old technique of recognizing the features found in the impressions made by unique ridges and valleys on the surface of a human's fingertips called fingerprints. Another technique is that of Hand Geometry, which is based on the 
measurement and analysis of the shape of a person's hand through individual features like width, height, and length of the fingers, or distance between joints. A more advanced technology is that of Iris Recognition in which the distinctly colored ring that surrounds the pupil of the eye of person is used for his identification. The technique uses the 250 unique characteristics of a person's iris to recognize him before providing access. The last but not the least is Voice Recognition technology in which the different characteristics ofvoice such as tone, pitch, cadence, etc., of a person's voice are used. In this method, after capturing samples of the individual's speech, the system then converts them to an electronic biometric template, to compare on subsequent occasions. Voice recognition system is used to execute commands of individuals too.Detection Systems Until recently, surveillance used to be reactive rather than proactive to ensure security. With the advancement in 'Detection Systems', surveillance systems of today are capable of proactive security. To ensure this, the detection systems are integrated with access control systems that prevent intruders possessing Lethal Weapons, Dangerous chemicals, Explosives, Narcotics etc., from gaining access into the guarded premises. EDS or Explosive detection systems that explosives using the physical dimensions and densities attributes of explosive materials and ETD's or Explosive trace detectors that detect the vapor or particles of explosives are two major detection techniques in use. IMS or Ion mobile spectrometers ionize the target molecules in the sample to identify chemicals based on their mobility of their ions by passing them through a drift space. And MS or Mass Spectrometry too has faster identifying potential threats.
Access Control Systems
The most crucial part of any surveillance system is in its ability to fight the intentions of a potential trouble maker by barring his entry and stopping him from proceeding with his evil designs. Thus a whole range of access control systems like covered entry ways armed with magnetometers or metal detectors, Video intercom systems, Alarm systems apart from Entry and Exit control systems, becomes a part of a security and surveillance apparatus. Upon the identification of threat in a potential intruder through video, biometric, EDS, ETD etc., the surveillance system would take proactive measures in first barring his access by locking the entry points and then goes on to intimate the potential threat to all concerned that might at times include the nearest law enforcing agency like Police apart from generating appropriate
alarm. An effective access control system is extremely important in the stopping a potential threat.Remote Monitoring With rapid growth in wireless video technology the scope and outreach of video surveillance has grown fast. With the finalization of new IEEE 802.11-2007 wireless networking standard '802.11n' probably by June 2010 the range and transfer rate of wireless signals are to be increased in a big way. Similarly wireless security has also improved in a big way with advanced encryption making it impossible for people to break-into wireless surveillance networks. Wireless IP Video and remote digital video wireless surveillance transmission equipment has a wide range of applications and configurations including complex systems which has multiple fixed and pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera control at various distances. This technology is today as much used for remote security and wireless surveillance, as it finds use in corporate communication and conferencing. Wireless video IP has advantages in terms of less initial costs, time and labor apart from ease of use with its real-time, highresolution wireless IP video transmission.
Remote video applications are implemented in Freeway and city traffic monitoring, Military Installation Perimeter Security, Citywide Municipal Surveillance, National Security Applications, Public Safety ParksMonitoring, Construction Site Monitoring, Remote Industrial Plant SCADA Monitoring, Campus/ Business Remote Cameras etc.,Legal Ethical angles of a Surveillance Advancement in technology and its use necessarily need not mean that the rights of individuals and their privilege to privacy can be trampled over at will. In US and Europe, individual freedom and privacy are held in high esteem, that there are so many legal battles fought on the issue of intrusive surveillance even in public places. With high quality images and ability to ensure a close up view of far off objects by zoom, the modern technology is capable of taking predatory and extremely frightful forms, leaving in itswake broken relationships, families apart from bitter, nasty experiences and court cases. Hence both the user and implementing artners of these technologies should be extremely alert, while installing these technologies. It would do well to ask oneself of the necessity for a certain camera at a certain location, not only in the interest of cost and power saving but also in terms of avoidable trouble. While ameras are fixed covering a 'Public place', it is desirable to place a sign in a prominent place stating the fact that the place is under surveillance. Again private areas like toilets and bedrooms can very well be considered as forbidden areas for surveillance. In places where women frequent, camera angle and ability for close ups should be considered and curtailed appropriately, so that the privacy of women are not comprised on any account. Again a surveillance camera meant for a certain premises should not be allowed to become an intrusion of privacy of a neighbor's bedroom, living space or office space. More than the legal angle, ethical angles should be considered when it comes to installation of surveillance technology. And one would do well to realize the age old adage, 'what so ever ye shall sow, ye shall reap' and curtail surveillance technology from being put to unscrupulous use or falling into unscrupulous elements. If not a beneficialtechnology could very well become a reason for a nasty incident resulting in a court case and subsequent huge payments to the ggrieved party in cost and damages let alone the break down of social relationships and resultant friction.
Future of Video surveillance
When it comes to future of security and surveillance, two aspects seem to be the possibilities. They are the mobility of surveillance and enhancement of data processing towards artificial intelligence. In terms of mobility already we have cameras mounted on wheels and the future could be that of 'hovering video cameras', where an miniature airborne contrivance would hold a camera to be manipulated at will to pre programmed instructions, taking surveillance to hitherto unknown nook and corners of capabilities. Similarly artificial intelligence tech nology too has a lot of promise in processing data and reacting appropriately to counter perceived threats even without the intervention of human beings for prolonged periods. It might then become pretty hard to differentiate a human being from a humanoid. Soon we may have to pity the plight of young boys falling in love with humanoid surveillance robots unleashed on them by their parents.
"Doesn't the fight for survival also justify swindle and theft? In self defense, anything goes..." - Imelda Marcos
Doulath Khan M. Mohamed, Deputy Editor,The Masterbuilder
