Eye-like surveillance

New Scientist | June 2nd 2006

Mimicking the human eye's rapid intermittent movement – or saccade motion – can make surveillance systems much more effective, claims a new patent filed for the US government by Hui Cheng at the Sarnoff Vision Unit in New Jersey.

To illustrate, consider this: How many uncrewed-aerial-vehicle cameras would be needed to continually catch all movement over a 3-kilometre-square area on the ground? The answer is several hundred. Or you might use a single drone, but it would then take 20 minutes for a full scan. In some circumstances, neither option is acceptable.

To enhance the area viewed by the cameras, Cheng has mimicked a natural trick. The human eye’s fovea (where vision is most acute) sees with maximum detail only in a 4° zone but extends useably detailed vision to about 80° by continually flitting its view and focusing on any motion detected. This means areas of interest – where something has changed – are covered without needing detailed vision over a large area.

The new surveillance system replicates this with two cameras – a wide-angle, low-definition camera which seeks signs of movement across wide area, and a high-definition narrow-angle camera which darts toward the motion and takes a detailed view.

The two views are merged into one for the security officer to view. Detail is continually added where it is most needed, for instance when a tank rolls, a car pulls out of a garage or someone tries to climb a wall. The end result, says the patent, is that two cameras do the job of 200.

Click here for the eye-like surveillance patent.

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