Boundless Security Systems, Inc.

sharper images with better access and easier installation

Tutorial: Fundamental
Principles Behind Digital Video
Security Systems

Boundless Security Systems, Inc. (BSSI)

3 Simm Lane, Unit #1F
Newtown, CT 06470 USA
tel. 203-445-0562 x1 (Sales), fax 203-445-0564
Sales(at)BoundlessS.com, www.BoundlessS.com
March 29, 2005 © 2004-5 by BSSI, All Rights Reserved, Patent Pending
 Analog Video Standards

• NTSC
• Effects on CCTV Cameras

© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com

 3

NTSC, a 50-Year-Old Handicap

• Analog video signal protocol used by all
CCTV video cameras and monitors in USA
fundamentally limits video image quality of
all CCTV systems and surveillance systems
• Analog video signal sensitive to noise
• Vertical resolution limit 480 lines
• Horizontal resolution limit 704 to 720 pixels
• Color resolution only 1/2 of brightness
• Each “picture” (frame) requires two fields
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 4

NTSC, a 50-Year-Old Handicap

• Two interlaced fields per frame reduce video
monitor flicker but blur motion capture
• Color image sensors blur images even more

Each frame is
formed from two
interdigitated
fields over a
fixed period of
1/30 second.

© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com

 5

NTSC, a 50-Year-Old Handicap

• Color and brightness information in a sin-
gle composite video signal interfere with
one another, smearing and blurring images

Color fringes in inferior No fringes in component

composite video (NTSC) video (not NTSC)
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 6

CCTV Video Camera Handicaps

• 35 mm camera typically uses 1/125 s
exposure to freeze motion but CCTV camera
whole-frame exposure usually fixed at slow
speed of 1/30 s (PAL: 1/25 s)
• Faster CCTV video exposure, e.g., 1/1000 s,
applies only line-by-line not to whole frame
• Maximum whole-frame exposure only 1/60 s
(not 1/30 s), limiting use in dim light
• Poor exposure control with slow response
to rapid changes in lighting; night problems
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 Image Sensors

• Types of Sensors
• Color Capture
• Exposure Problems
• Motion Capture
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 8

Types of Image Sensor Chips

• CCD’s -- Charge Coupled Device, oldest but
common image sensor technology, lowest
noise; need multiple chips for digital
output, higher power and more expensive
than CMOS due to special manufacturing
• CMOS -- Complementary Metal Oxide
Semiconductor, only single chip required
for digital output, same mainstream
manufacturing as many logic chips for low
cost, lower power than CCD’s
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 9

Color Capture Technology

• RGB color filters, one for each of 3 image
sensors, beam splitter -- expensive, fragile
• Stacked color-sensitive silicon layers in
sensor -- promising but unproven
• RGB color filter dots in hexagonal pattern,
must convert to composite colors
• RGB color filter dots in rectangular pattern
(Bayer 2G) are most common but must be
converted to composite colors (YUV) for
compression or use as NTSC video signal
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 10

Image Sensor Exposure

Problems
• Limited image contrast
• Details in shadows and highlights lost
• Interlaced scan limits maximum exposure to
short field period, 1/60 s, limiting night use
• Fast exposure line-by-line not whole frame
• Built-in exposure adjustment easily fooled
by dark background and bright moving
objects, and rapid changes in brightness,
can’t capture license plates at night or eyes
behind dark glasses
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 11

Image Sensor Color Capture

Problems
• Significant processing power needed for
color conversion
• Many sensors have simple built-in ability
to convert 2-D patterns of dots so external
hardware not needed but sharpness lost
and artifacts created, especially with
moving objects

© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com

 12

Image Sensor Color Capture

Problems
• 2-D regions of dots (pixels) are converted
to brightness (Y) and color (U, V) for CCTV
cameras and digital image compression
• Motion artifacts created because two lines
in two fields used to convert pixels

Y,U,V
Y,U,V
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 13

NTSC Motion Capture

Problems in Image Sensors
• Interlaced scan takes two pictures (fields)
starting 1/60 s apart to make a frame
• Moving objects are in different locations
due to time differences between scans
• Size of moving objects distorted depending
on direction of travel relative to scanning
• Severe problems if camera not steady
• Two sources of blurring, not just one -- use
of two lines from each of two fields
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 14

NTSC Motion Capture

Problems in Image Sensors
• Objects move and are captured during
entire 1/30 s frame (two fields) period
• Filter dot pattern requires combining of
pixels from both fields into each field
• Interlace requires doubling of height of
pixel blocks for motion estimation, key
part of video compression, reducing video
compression ability because likelihood
that pixels are from same object reduced
• Alleviated in frame-store transfer CCDs
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 15

NTSC Motion Capture Problems

• Odd field is RGRG, even field GBGB...

© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com

 16

Progressive Image Scanning --

Superior to Interlaced
• Entire image scanned only once per frame
• Still digital cameras use it
• Motion pictures, HDTV and high-end DVD
players and video displays use it to give
sharpest images
• Captures motion better
• Video compresses better
• CCTV cameras can’t use it
• Motion pictures 24 fps not 30
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 Video Compression
• Standards
• Data Rate Control
• Data Rates
• Factors in Video Quality
• Amount of Storage Required
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 18

Video Compression Standards

• MJPEG - Motion JPEG, each frame comp-
ressed separately using many small blocks
of pixels, creating many artifacts, high
quality images if compression < 10:1
• Wavelets - each frame compressed separ-
ately but as a whole, fewer obvious artifacts
than JPEG, high quality if compression <
10:1, better than JPEG at very high levels
• H.261 - uses motion estimation, early video
conferencing standard, better than JPEG
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 19

Video Compression Standards

• MPEG-2 - uses motion estimation -- static
information sent infrequently, differences
between adjacent frames are compressed
using small blocks of pixels; high quality
compression < 30:1 (used in DVDs)
• MPEG-4 - similar to MPEG-2 but compares
more frames to give more compression;
high quality compression for entertainment
video < 100:1; problems with rapid changes
in camera angle, zooms, fades
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 20

Video Compression Data-Rate

Control
• Constant bit rate (CBR) - encoder limits bit
rate for real-time communications channel
with limited bandwidth, sacrificing image
quality when high motion or detail, produces
fixed (high) data rate even with static image
• Variable bit rate (VBR) - encoder allows bit
rate to vary widely, including to near-zero in
absence of motion, very useful for security
and surveillance applications because
storage needs are reduced automatically
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 21

Video Compression Data Rates

• Measure raw color video as 24 bits/pixel
• Raw broadcast-quality data rate = 24
bits/pixel x 704 pixels/line x 480 lines/frame
x 30 frames/s = 243 Mbps (Million bits / s)
• MJPEG: 10:1 => 25 Mbps (DV cam)
• MPEG-4 VBR (e): 100:1 => 2.5 Mbps
• MPEG-4 VBR (s): 1,000:1 => 0.25 Mbps
!Better compression => higher frame rate,
better images and longer storage
(e) = entertainment content, (s) = security content
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
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Video Compression Data Rates

• MJPEG @ 25 Mbps = 3 MB/s => 5.5 minutes
/ 1 GB storage
• MPEG-4 VBR (e) = 0.3 MB/s => 1 hour / 1 GB
storage
• MPEG-4 VBR (s) = 0.03 MB/s => 10 hours / 1
GB storage
!MPEG-4 VBR gives up to 100x improvement
over MJPEG for security video, enabling
more and better images to be stored, longer
(e) = entertainment content, (s) = security content
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 23

Benefits of Video Compression

with MPEG-4 VBR vs. MJPEG
• Increase frame rate up to 100x for given
image resolution
• Reduce data storage up to 100x for given
image resolution
• Better compression is much less expensive
than more hard drives
• Much smoother video wirelessly, where
transmission speed is limited

© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com

 24

Factors in Video Quality

• Resolution of each image - easily measured
• Color depth and format
– typ. 8 bits per value
– color or monochrome
– sharpness of brightness typ. different than color
– YUV411: color has 1/4 sharpness of brightness
• Frame rate - easily measured
• Clarity of each image - hard to measure
– hard to quantify and depends on content
– depends upon amount of in-frame compression
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 25

Factors in Video Quality

• Basic measurement for one camera
– DEFINE: Video Quality = Resolution x Frame Rate
• Use standard units for resolution
– CIF = 320x240 (computer) or 352x240 (TV)
• Examples: Video Quality =
– 1 CIF x 4 frames/s = 4 CIF/s (many DVR’s and PC-
based digital video recording systems)
– 1 CIF x 30 frames/s = 30 CIF/s
– 4 CIF x 30 frames/s = 120 CIF/s is required for full
quality, standard definition NTSC
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 26

New Unit of Mass Video Storage

• Must think on a much larger scale to store
massive amounts of compressed video
• Proposed new storage unit = 1-1-1-1
– 1 continuous (24/7) video stream at...
– 1 million bits per sec. (Mbps) continuously for...
– 1 quarter of a year requires...
– 1 terabyte (TB = 1,000 GB = 10^6 MB) of storage
• Example
– Large airport with 1,000 cameras 24/7 for 3 months
at 1 Mbps/camera continuously requires 1,000 TB
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 Wireless LANs

• Types
• Problems

© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com

 28

Wireless LANs
• Digital LAN is different from “X10” wireless
transmission that only sends analog signals
• Common high speed wireless LAN standards
– 802.11a: speed to 72 Mbps at 4.8 GHz
– 802.11b: speed is 1 to 11 Mbps at 2.4 GHz
– 802.11g: speed is 1 to 54 Mbps at 2.4 GHz
– Note: Usable payload is only about 50%
• Like old coax LAN, not switched LAN, effic-
iency drops as number of users increases
due to collisions between their data
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 29

Wireless LANs
• No FCC license required but microwave
ovens, wireless phones and other devices
can interfere with transmission / reception
• Can be jammed by too much traffic, either
accidentally or by local Denial-of-Service;
must protect main network from overloads
• Multiple sets of frequencies/channels add
capacity, but most overlap one another
• Much harder to use than it appears due to
signal absorption, reflection, interference
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 30

Wireless LANs
• Example of problem
– A dense wall with a wireless node on each side,
node is far from the end of the wall
– Wireless Access Point beyond the end of the
wall, can communicate with both nodes
– Problem: Wireless nodes may not be able to
communicate with each other and therefore jam
each other’s signals at the Wireless Access
Point since one node doesn’t know when the
other node is sending

© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com

 Internet Protocols for Video

• HTTP
• File Transfer
• Streaming

© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com

 32

HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer

Protocol
• Common “language” of Web pages
• Reliable, two-way communication with user
• Does not directly support dynamic data
• Network cameras act as Web servers,
commonly used due to simplicity of software
• Web server stores “video” as series of JPEG
files, which are updated as often as possible
• Each file stores one frame of an image
• Each file must be closed to be accessed
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 33

HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer

Protocol
• Web browser has Java program that reads,
decodes and displays each new JPEG file
• Low frame rate due to synchronization
problems and slow speed of Java, which
does not use microprocessor-specific
speedups for image decoding or converting
YUV video to RGB for PC’s video display
• Each viewer generates more work for
network camera and its network segment,
potentially overloading them
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 34

FTP: File Transfer Protocol

• Complex protocol used to move files
• Reliable, two-way communication with user
– Packets can be received in any order
– Missing or damaged packets are resent
• Files must be closed to be moved
• Complex data rate control optimizes rate of
data transmission to speed of network
• Efficient - single acknowledgement for many
packets reduces overhead
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 35

TFTP: Trivial File Transfer

Protocol
• Simple version of FTP, used to move files
• Reliable, two-way communication with user
– Packets can be received in any order
– Missing or damaged packets are resent
• Files must be closed to be moved
• No data rate control to optimize rate of data
transmission to speed of network
• Inefficient - single acknowledgement for
each packet is required
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 36

RTP: Real Time Protocol

• Unreliable, one-way broadcasting of live and
recorded audio and video to multiple users
• Like a TV or radio station -- information is
sent once and continuously without regard
for any transmission or reception problems
• Less network and server traffic than FTP and
TFTP since no acknowledgements used
• Packets can be lost for several reasons
– Transient network overloads or insufficient speed
– Transient receiver and server overloads
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
 37

RTP: Real Time Protocol

• Any error affects many frames when highly
compressed video, MPEG-4, is used, since
most frames are built from previous frames
• Endless stream of data must be decoded
and broken into files for recording by
receiver, burdening receiver
• Finite packet size limits number of users to
which media can be streamed
• Streaming server must receive updates to
add/remove recipients from multicast list
© 2004, 2005 Boundless Security Systems, Inc. www.BoundlessS.com
Boundless Security Systems, Inc.
sharper images with better access and easier installation

Tutorial: Fundamental
Principles Behind Digital Video
Security Systems
The End

Boundless Security Systems, Inc. (BSSI)

3 Simm Lane, Unit #1F
Newtown, CT 06470 USA
tel. 203-445-0562 x1 (Sales), fax 203-445-0564
Sales(at)BoundlessS.com, www.BoundlessS.com
© 2004-5 by BSSI, All Rights Reserved, Patent Pending