Plextek launches fast-deployment surveillance camera

13th April 2010

Plextek Ltd

ES Admin

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Plextek, the Cambridge-based electronics and communications design consultancy, today announced the launch of Sentinel, a high resolution wireless camera system that can be deployed in under five minutes. Combining a high-performance digital sensor and zoom optics, intelligent real-time image processing and 3G connectivity, the battery-powered integrated system provides excellent video resolution for important scene areas, matched to the variable bit rate of cellular networks. Sentinel automatically detects moving objects to determine the image areas for high quality transmission and to trigger alarms, delivering an easy to use system for both portable and vehicle use. In addition an operator may select static image areas for high-quality transmission.

Sentinel is ideally suited to defence and security applications such as public order monitoring, special operations and crime scenes requiring fast set-up, as well as allowing flexible and cost-effective monitoring of multiple locations. Sentinel identifies areas of interest in the image and intelligently assigns different amounts of image compression to each one. Video quality can therefore be maintained for important image areas whilst reducing it in others. This allows optimised image resolution to be sent over wireless links having bandwidths limited to cellular speeds. Together with real-time motion and target tracking to identify important elements of the scene, the system can adapt dynamically as the link quality varies, allowing users freedom to concentrate on the important aspects of a scene.

“The Sentinel system solves the problem of providing high resolution monitoring in a portable platform”, says Graham Tootell, Project Engineer at Plextek. “Not only does it provide excellent imaging, it can be configured to trigger an alarm when people stray into certain areas making it ideal for the police and armed forces. Having these capabilities deployed in under five minutes means that an area or crime scene can be secured rapidly and potential problems identified and averted more effectively.”

The system offers a full 360-degree pan and a battery life of 24 hours in a typical scenario, together with all weather monitoring and resolution that can allow person identification at distances in excess of 600 metres. The modular system architecture also allows the standard 3G wireless modem to be substituted with alternative wireless link transceivers according to requirements.

This is the first system offering utilising Plextek’s suite of image processing functions launched in early April. Plextek’s software processing can be applied to a wide range of cameras and sensors, including high quality cameras incorporating digital image sensors such as used in Sentinel. The functions provide much better resolution for image areas of interest whilst trading it off in others, giving better overall system performance.

Plextek will be showcasing Sentinel at Defence Services Asia (DSA), Stand 7P28, Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 19th - 22nd April 2010.