The monitoring of wide open spaces such as desert borders or a sea shores is a difficult and expensive task. However there is a need to detect intruders from a long distance which for a pedestrian could be as little as one to one and half kilometer, and for a motorized vehicle this distance could be three to five kilometers. Because this monitoring takes place day and night the problem of lighting is crucial and no active system can be used at these distances. Therefore, only thermal cameras are the only realistic and practical solution.
The problem with thermal cameras besides their poor visual quality is that in order to achieve the distances mentioned above we need to use long-focal lenses, resulting in a very narrow field of view. This in turn implies that a large number of cameras have to be installed to cover wide-open spaces and thermal cameras are not inexpensive.
ACIC, Videotec, and their partner Comtec Systems have joined forces to develop and install a very reliable and cost efficient solution. To our knowledge, this is a ‘world premiere’ and it has successfully been installed by Comtec Systems in several projects in Kuwait. In short the solution consists of installing a thermal camera with the appropriate lenses able to deal with difficult conditions in summer when there is poor thermal contrast between a human body and the surrounding sea mass. This thermal camera is installed in one of Videotec’s latest generation of PTZ Head and the camera constantly sweeps the zone to protect. ACIC advanced intelligence video analytics creates a digital panorama during the first sweep of the camera, and superimposes a precise grid. In this way, when the camera sweeps back to its initial starting position a new panorama is created. The two pictures are then compared and any difference is analyzed and eventually reported as an alarm.
The whole solution is in operation since more than one year in very harsh climatic conditions and has thus far performed to full satisfaction. These intelligent sweeping thermal cameras can be compared to an optical radar but in reality is far more efficient than a radar. Radar always requires additional camera (s) to verify the alarm and identify the threat, which result in high investment and maintenance costs. ACIC-Comtec Systems solution is simpler, less prone to interferences and much less expensive. This product will be on display on Comtec Systems - ACIC Integrated Security booth 6-123 at Intersec in Dubai from January 17 to January 19, 2010.
Should you require any information please contact either Jean Francoise Delaigle, Managing Director at ACIC at delaigle@acic.eu or Georges Lebeau, Managing Director of Comtec Systems at gleleau@comtec-kuwait.com
