Sharpening in one direction only

There are times where it may become necessary to only sharpen in one direction. What's that you say? Why sharpen in just one direction? How do I do that?

As we discussed in class (and a good reason to sign up for the next class),  chip makers do some crazy things. Regular readers of this blog already know my rants on the CCTV industry. With that in mind, some chips anti-alias in one direction, but not the other (ie. anti-alias the image along the horizontal whilst leaving the vertical alone). It turns out that Photoshop has had the cure to this problem all along. Remember the Custom Filter? Well, it's time to use it again.

Read the linked post before proceeding as it helps to get your mind set around the rules for using this odd yet powerful filter. Then, click Filter>Other>Custom to bring up the Custom Filter dialog box.

A pretty effective setting for sharpening along the horizontal, but leaving the vertical alone is demonstrated below. Remember the rules, the entries should equal the scale.

The same is true for the vertical, leaving the horizontal alone.

Give this one a try and I'll think that you'll see ... it's a pretty effective sharpener for use with those dodgy DVR images we all see. Better yet, you can build an action to run this and save yourself from having to input the numbers each time.

Enjoy.

Futian is the centre of the universe

So I am consolidating my various databases, getting ready to migrate from Bento to Filemaker Pro 9 Advanced here at the home office. My list of cctv/dvr manufacturers has expanded like a football team at the Home Town Buffet. One curious fact has emerged: the Futian District in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China (PRC) is the centre of the CCTV/DVR universe.

Companies like Shenzhen's Vangold Technologies offers over 50 different DVR cards to DVR manufacturers. Aopvision Tech's offering of just 16 cards, seems small by comparison. With all of the small companies that dot the countryside, you'll never look at a "generic stand-alone" DVR the same way again. The case is made somewhere, the DVR board - somewhere else, the DVR software - somewhere else again ... The combinations are complex enough to make you cry.

All totaled, my database has passed 300 manufacturers - from the biggies like Pelco, Bosch, GE, and Honeywell, to the mid-sized like Dedicated Micros and GeoVision, to the seemingly small companies like Shenzhen's New Surway Digital Technology (with their 40 DVR cards). So, do the math ... over 300 DVR manufacturers x an average of two dozen products each = way more than 7200 unique DVR products on the market. Ouch! How does one keep up?

And there sits little Futian District - the epicenter of the DVR universe?

Need CCTV help? Call the Doktor!

When I see that companies are "getting it," I like to do a little feature on them and their work. So often, we see the results of folks that just don't get it. In the world of CCTV, the people that don't get it far outnumber the people that do.

Doktor Jon is a reader of the blog and has contributed a few comments here and there. The good Doktor is one of the folks who understand CCTV and how to make it work effectively. Jon has a new service that he's offering called VIPER - short for Video Image Performance Evaluation Report. It's a service whose time has come.

Here's the short of it: you are a business owner with a CCTV system. You have no idea if it's worthwhile or fit to purpose. You grab a few stills from the various cameras and send them to Jon.  He takes a look at them to see if easy improvements can be made with your existing infrastructure and so forth and issues you a comprehensive report / recommendations. 

Quite a service for such a reasonable fee. So, if you need help with your CCTV installation ... call the Doktor.

Enjoy.

He's watching your every move ... but who is he?

Even the most private of citizens leave an information trail. Just how big is that store of data? Read this interesting article from the UK Telegraph.

In a related story, officials from New York are off to London for a bit of advice. Want my advice, travel to Utah. They seem to know the secret of relatively low crime per capita ... trust your citizens - issue concealed carry permits.

Enjoy.

CCTV Effectiveness Called Into Question

The internet is buzzing with reports of the lack of concrete proof that CCTV is at all effective in reducing or preventing crime. MSNBC has this report on on the subject. In it, they cite a Seattle official who actually voted against more cameras. Nevertheless, officials are tripping over themselves to install cameras.

Here is the question that I always ask in evaluating the success of a CCTV scheme, "now that the CCTV cameras are installed and operational, would you take your family to visit ____?" Pick the location and ask the question for yourself.

Time and again, people opt to visit places with more visible signs of safety and security - like improved lighting and an active police patrol.

Read the article and see what you think ...

CCTV: analogue vs. digital - the dangers

Here's a link to an interesting article about the dangers of moving from analogue to digital CCTV.

Enjoy.

CCTV in the news

More CCTV news out of the UK.

The Scotsman.com asks, "Does CCTV actually work?" And, the BBC has a similar story that seems to answer the question, "CCTV boom failing to cut crime."

Enjoy.

Evidence Ready CCTV Standard Launched in the UK

From the Forensic Video Analysis Group, London, UK:

"The Evidence Ready CCTV standards licensing programme has been designed to help the police retrieve evidence quickly and easily by providing them with all the information they need to export and view the evidence."

Click here to read more about this interesting development. Pay particular attention to the specifications in the agreement. The first questions that I asked myself is, "how can 'Export of recorded footage without the appropriate playback software onto Compact disc (CD) and/or digital versatile disc (DVD) and/or universal serial bus (USB) device' be considered evidence ready?" Won't you need the player to play back the footage in it's native form?

Enjoy.

CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police

Police officers monitor CCTV screens in the control room at
New Scotland Yard in London.
Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AFP/Getty images

From the Guardian, UK: "Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.

The warning comes from the head of the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido) at New Scotland Yard as the force launches a series of initiatives to try to boost conviction rates using CCTV evidence."

Read on by clicking here.

"Billions of pounds has been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court. It's been an utter fiasco: only 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV. There's no fear of CCTV. Why don't people fear it? [They think] the cameras are not working." - DCI Mick Neville, MPS

Sounds familiar to me ...