New Uses for Security Surveillance Video

Most people think of video surveillance systems in terms of the systems that often show up in convenience stores, pharmacies, banks, and other businesses that handle large amounts of cash or other easy-to-steal goods. It's reasonable for people to think about video surveillance in those terms because that is how the technology has been used for most of its existence—most people couldn't afford it for home use.

But that has changed. The technology is getting cheaper (and better) all the time, and that's making it useful for new purposes and in new places. For example, many homeowners now install video surveillance to monitor not only the entryways to their residences, but even the interior of the house. These interior surveillance cameras have been dubbed "nanny cams" by some, and their name tells you what people are doing with them.

Advances in the technology used to transmit video feeds from surveillance cameras have made it possible to monitor video feeds from remote locations. Instead of looking at a monitor in another room of your house, you can watch the video feed from your desktop computer at work, or from your laptop while you are traveling. Digital video has replaced analog signals, so these live feeds are now available as high-resolution, high-definition images viewable almost anywhere. Since anyone who can afford a nanny can also afford to purchase one of these IP cameras, there have now been several cases in which parents have determined that their children were being mistreated by nannies and other caregivers, as in a February 2008 case in Cary, North Carolina, not far from Raleigh.

More recently, blogger Chris Preimesburger of eWeek Security Watch has written about the explosive growth of video surveillance in the private sector since September 11, 2001. Preimesburger notes that the United Kingdom is now the most-surveilled nation on earth, with more security cameras per person than any other country. In his May 21, 2009 article "Now You, Too, Can Deploy a Portable Video Security Station", Preimesburger also outlines the top reasons that people buy the new generation of security cam:

1. For "Nanny-Cam" Usage
2. To Monitor Entrances and Exits
3. To Monitor Events inside the Home

Preimesburger also points out that many IP cameras now transmit sound as well as video, so that users can hear as well as see events as they happen. This has made the technology attractive for businesses that need to enforce accountability for employees, and makes the cameras useful also for video conferencing.

The two articles we've discussed here are interesting to us for a couple of reasons. First and most importantly, they show just how common, how ubiquitous, video surveillance has become. For a lot of people, it has turned into a daily part of life instead of something highly technical and a little scary. Second, it was really interesting for us to see the unusual ways in which video surveillance is now being used. Monitoring entry and exit points for a building, or the interior of a business vulnerable to robbery and burglary . . . well, that's obvious stuff. We have over twenty-four years of experience with it. But with the coming of light-weight, digital solutions that broadcast over networks we have seen people get really creative in their uses of this technology.