Nearly all the articles and examples published about CCTV relate to
security applications. However, there are many far more interesting
uses where imagination and flare can bring immediate and tangible
benefits. So, in this issue we are looking at non-security applications
for CCTV. Many of these applications were one off requirements, which
for a purchased installation would have been impossibly expensive. The
solution was the short term hire of a system with temporary cabling,
this made it affordable for the customer and very profitable to the
installer.
Time lapse recording for animating plasticine puppets
The original experimental animation of plasticine puppets was made
using a time lapse video recorder and replayed in real time. The rest
is history.
Carrying out a traffic survey for a town centre regeneration
A town was planning a major reconstruction of the town centre, one
problem though, was that it was also an intersection of two main trunk
roads and three local roads. An analysis of traffic flow was obviously
a necessity and the usual method was for observers to sit by each
junction and count the vehicles passing. It was considered that this
would be expensive and not very accurate to cover a complete week's
traffic twenty four hours a day. Another problem was that although
traffic flow could be counted at junctions, it would be difficult to
determine where it went off.
The solution proposed was a CCTV system to monitor the traffic
flow. There was a multi-storey car park right in the centre of the
intersection where cameras could be mounted covering every junction. To
purchase such a system would have been very expensive (although not
prohibitively so) for just a couple of weeks. The answer was to hire
the complete system on a short term contract.
The system consisted of eight fixed monochrome cameras,
connected to a multiplexer and 12 hour time lapse video recorder. The
installation would be temporary with cables simply laid along the roof,
therefore, 24 volt cameras were used to eliminate the need for the
expense of complying with wiring regulations. This made a significant
reduction in the potential installation costs.
Two tapes were used each day to provide a continuous record of
traffic for the seven days. The tapes could then be analysed in
significant detail including the types of vehicles and the routes taken
in and out of the intersection. This proved to be not only a cost
effective solution but provided far more useful data than a manual
survey could achieve.
Monitoring traffic on a bridge
This was similar to the first example, in that a very old bridge
could no longer take two-way traffic and a bypass was needed. Once
again a time lapse VCR and two cameras provided far more information on
traffic flow than manual logs could have provided.
Recording inside a baking oven
A large bakery was producing thousands of Danish type pastries every
night for distribution to a chain of high street shops. The pastries
were conveyed on a wire mesh chain conveyor through the oven and
discharged onto a flat belt conveyor to cool and pass to packing.
On rare occasions, maybe four or five times a year, instead of
discharging, the pastries jammed at the transfer with the following
pastries piling up behind. It only needed a couple of minutes for the
entire oven and feed line to be a complete mess of uncooked, overcooked
pastry filling the space. Not only was a complete night's production
lost, but it needed several days to clean up the mess and start
production again. The repercussions could be that it was not just the
Danish pastry sales that were lost but confidence in the company would
be diminished. On every occasion, the conveyors and drives were
stripped down, inspected and reassembled, but nothing untoward was
found.
Again the solution was simple and temporary. A small camera was
fitted in a water-cooled housing and mounted inside the oven, viewing
the discharge area. This was connected to an 8-hour video recorder and
the entire production shift recorded. The tape was simply overwritten
each night there was no incident. It was over two months before
disaster struck again. However, this time there was a video from inside
the oven.
Detailed analysis of the tape produced an answer that could
never have been found by any other means. There was a small kink on one
side of the conveyor chain, and a small flaw in one of the driving
sprockets. Due to the gear ratios and a fluid coupling the possibility
of the mesh kink meeting the sprocket flaw was thousands to one. To
make the incidence even more remote, this coincidence had to occur just
as the first batch of pastry emerged from the oven, once it was flowing
there was no problem. However, it was determined that this was in fact
what had occurred. It was decided to leave the camera in place
permanently, but once cured the problem, never presented itself again
and they all lived happily ever after.
Recording the birth of a gorilla in a zoo at night
Apparently gorillas are very private animals, particularly when
expecting a birth. The BBC wildlife programme wanted to record the
events leading up to and after the birth, but the problem was during
the night when any illumination would be unacceptable. The solution was
to use an infrared illuminator with an 850 nanometer filter which would
be totally unobtrusive with an infrared sensitive camera and time lapse
VCR. The result was the first recorded birth of a gorilla in captivity.
Making a wildlife program in an isolated area using a model helicopter
Many exotic locations for wildlife filming are too remote or
inaccessible to reach on foot or from conventional helicopters. One
solution was to fit a miniature camera and radio transmitter to a small
model helicopter. This was radio controlled and comparatively
unobtrusive to the local wildlife, creating unique footage of film.
Reproducing the infrared vision of a goldfish
A university was studying the ability of fish to apparently ‘see’
and navigate through murky water. The theory was that goldfish had
vision that was sensitive to infra light. It would seem that where the
visible part of the spectrum was largely reflected by water, infra
light penetrates further. To simulate this, a camera was fitted with a
filter that restricted its sensitivity to only the infrared part of the
spectrum. An infrared illuminator was directed from above and the views
from the camera noted. I never saw the results of this and don’t know
what, if anything, was proven. It was interesting to set up and
different from run-of-the-mill CCTV.
Safety at Grand Prix racing
After the tragic accident of Nicki Lauder at The Nurburg Ring in
Germany, Grand Prix racing drivers banned the track for major events.
In May 1994 a new Nurburg Ring was opened with a computer-designed
track and many new safety measures. The particular item of interest is
a Geutebruck system of cameras connected back to a video motion
detection system in the control room. Each camera monitors an area of
the track, with zones defined alongside the track. If a car leaves the
track it is detected and a view of the area instantly displayed at the
control room and the appropriate action can be set into motion. If it
is an accident, emergency teams can be directed to the scene
immediately, even saving seconds can make the difference between life
and death. The system would also detect a spectator straying onto the
trackside. If a car leaves the track and rejoins the race, the system
is automatically reset.
There are many other examples of the innovative use of CCTV, other than security, such as:
Production control in factories.
In a stage show to see obscured parts of a set.
Use at football stadia.
Arial photography from a hot air balloon.
Many of these applications require some lateral thinking and
flexibility on the part of installation companies, maybe this is what
is lacking today. Many of these systems have provided excellent value
for money for the end user and can be very profitable for the
installer. |