Many years ago surveillance meant hiring some beefy looking



man

to lurk around dark corners and hide out in hidden awayrooms. But

surveillance

is no longer so rudimentary. In fact it has grown to the point where the

biggest

surveillance isactually the smallest. The technological age of surveillance

began with the advent of video cassette recorders. Being able to record live

from acamera source and store it on a cassette tape as analog information was

priceless. This meant that evidence could now bepreserved for an extended

point

of time. The 1970's was the beginning of this revolution and saw

businesses as

well aslaw enforcement agencies using the technology. The mid 1970's in

Europe

saw the devices being used for not just security surveillance but were put to

use to monitortraffic patterns. Meanwhile, in the United States, the analog

surveillance systems were only primarily for businesssecurity but in the

1980's it made its way to the public arena. Insurance agencies thought of the

technology as a boon.They were soon using it to fight against false claims

from

workman's comp fraud to fake accidents. Other industries didnot waste any

time

jumping on the bandwagon.For private homeowners this technology was used to

record the worst in others and found its niche with private detectivesand

jealous spouses in the 70's and 80's to capture cheating spouses, naughty

neighbors and abuse. The evidence was usedoften in the judicial system to

provide irrefutable proof. For as great as video recording was for security

purposes, many people got tired and bored with always having toconstantly

replace tapes. They would either record a day and be reused right away or

they

just wore out because tape,as we know, does not last forever. The

technology at

the time was lackluster in night and lowlight recording which gota fix in

technology when the CCD camera was introduced. The new microchip technology

allowed the camera to boost thenatural light already present, much like the

night vision goggles worn by military personnel. The 90's gave birth to

digital multiplexing. It was expensive at the onset but soon became

affordable

so that you couldrecord on several cameras at the same time. The technology

brought with it time-lapse and motion sensitivity. Videotapewas spared an

early

demise by the technology. Banks saw the genius and in the mid-90's nearly

every ATM machine hadcameras installed in them. They were even added to the

World Trade Center after the first attack in 1993. Othergovernment agencies

followed suit. Agencies around the world followed the lead that the FBI

and CIA

set precedent forand soon after sports complexes added them to aid in

prosecuting rowdy fans and vandals. Digital video made its appearance in

the mid

to late 90's but was not very affordable until the computer revolution

hit.There would be no more tapes and the images would be much clearer than

they

had been with the analog technology. Months of data could be recorded to

computer

hard drives without ever having to worry about changing anything thanks

tocompression utilities and affordability. With this the validity of evidence

obtained was impossible to negate in courtwhereas analog was grainy and you

could refute it easier than you could digital which could be manipulated by

zooming inand out, panning, moving frame by frame, adding and removing among

other advanced editing techniques. The police departments around the United

States began installing digital cameras into their patrol cars so they

couldhave

evidence in court for traffic violations or in case something happened on a

so-called routine stop. Public buildingsand locations also saw the cameras

being

installed. They basically landed everywhere they could. With digital being

streaming media and no tape to use and the computer revolution still going

strong the technology isbecoming so cheap and getting smaller and smaller;

the

homeowner is now able to use surveillance to secretly film theirchildren,

spouse

or employer with a device dubbed nanny cams. Digital developers were now

feeling

the heat to make evensmaller devices like pinhole cameras.After the events of

9/11 the software companies that had been toying with software programs for

security use (and implementing beta versions) were now working overtime to

bring

peace of mind to the citizens of the United Statesby creating facial

recognition

software. This software would take an image of a person and match up key

points

that wouldrun through the countries database of mug shots to find a match

with

95% accuracy. The same software is also beinginstalled in schools, businesses

and of course in military installations.The Internet can now be used as a

surveillance tool as well. Homeowners can place wireless cameras in their

homes

whichsend information back to the computer in the home which streams the

video

to a secure web site that can viewed fromanywhere in the world where they

have

internet access. Camera phones are the new must have of every person on the

planet. We want to capture funny moments on our phones be itstill photos or

small movie clips. They will soon replace those obtrusive traffic cams

once the

technology has advanceda little bit more. If you watch YouTube or any

video site

on the world wide web then you are familiar with streaming video. The

technologythat fuels streaming video and high speed internet services has

increased exponentially over the last five years and withthis increased

technology as well as camera phones it is likely that in the next several

years

the law enforcementagencies, security groups and military installations will

putting them to use by attaching small camera phones that canbe routed

directly

into the phone service. This would mean the signal would be sent real time

over

the phone linesallowing someone on the other end to immediately view the

information and act upon it quickly and efficiently. Real-Time - Occurring

immediately. The term is used to describe a number of different computer

features. For example,real-time operating systems are systems that respond to

input immediately. They are used for such tasks as navigation,in which the

computer must react to a steady flow of new information without interruption.

Most general-purpose operatingsystems are not real-time because they can

take a

few seconds, or even minutes, to react.