Camera movement can be an obstacle to video detection accuracy in the outdoors, and a big source of nuisance alarms. That’s because it’s difficult for automated cameras to detect movement in a scene when the whole field of view is also moving. For indoor surveillance applications, such camera shake is rarely a problem. In the outdoors, where cameras are mounted high on poles, even a slight wind or vibration can cause nuisance alarms.

Of course, wind and vibrations are rarely slight in the outdoors. Many video intrusion detection systems are deployed along open areas that are difficult to patrol — railways or railyards,  airport perimeters, national borders, seaports facing open water, among others — areas that are naturally impacted by high winds or vibrations from planes, trains, weather and machinery. Without effective image stabilization, these applications can be overwhelmed by nuisance alarms or worse, outright misdetects.

The best way to overcome the impact from wind or vibrations is to first stabilize the image electronically, before the video analytics take place.  Our last article in our nuisance alarm series looked at the value of image processing as a foundational step for accurate outdoor surveillance. With such processing cameras can first electronically stabilize the image for translation/rotation and zoom effects, sometimes refered to 3D stabilization, before the video analysis takes place.

You can see this in action with the following video, taken with an automated thermal detection camera. On the left, you’ll see the raw video as it enters the  security camera and the effect of wind and motion. On the right, you see the image after stabilization with the video analytics detection. Notice how the camera is still able to detect the second intruder in the distance without triggering nuisance alerts.

Importantly, electronic stabilization is most effective when integrated directly on-board a surveillance camera, and ideally as a dedicated processor.

Our next post in this continuing series will address the impact that small movement and clutter has on accurate outdoor detection. Subscribe to the SightLogix blog and keep updated on this topic as well as other articles related to outdoor video security.

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