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Image Capture

Lens and Optics
Camera Types
Camera Interfacing
Illumination
Camera Positioning

Image Processing

The Digital Image
Image Manipulation
Image Filtering
Image Compression
Image Recognition
Genetic Algorithms
Neural Networks
Security Applications

Glossary of Terms

Imaging for CCTV, Security and Surveillance

The aim of this site is to present an introduction to image capture and image processing for use in the fields of CCTV, Security and Surveillance. It also provides a point of contact for Merchants of security equipment along with reviews and discussion of current equipment, problems and solutions.

The Image Capture section covers the key factors of acquiring a video image from a digital camera or other image source. These include how a lens works through image sensor types to illumination.

The Image Processing section covers what you can do with the video image once captured, such as a Digital Video Recorder (DVR), Motion Detection, Alarm triggering and Verification or CCTV image enhancement to name a few.

There are many advantages to using a digital format and many issues relating to quality and performance. This site tries to explain the basics and gives you the information you need to select the right equipment.

Use of digital image processing enables enhancements to many aspects of a video surveillance system. Typical key features of a surveillance system are:
1. Deterrent - Attempt to avoid incident in the first place,
2. Intervention - Detect ongoing incident in time to enable intervention,
3. Evidence - Collection of evidence for post incident use.

The analog camera is very widely used in the Security, Surveillance and CCTV industries, but the trend is rapidly moving towards the digital camera. The difference is really only in the method used to transfer the image from the camera to where it will be recorded or processed. An intermediate step is for the signal from an analogue camera to be digitized by a frame grabber so that it can be processede. This retains the very low cost analogue camera and simple cabling while achieving many of the benefits of image processing. However, image quality is limited and it does not take advantage of modern high resolution image sensors or the potential benefits of digital interconnect such as wireless networks. A digital camera essentially migrates the frame grabber and some computing into the camera itself rather than at the end of a long cable.