Analytic Laser Radar For Perimetric Security

Analytic Laser Radar For Perimetric Security

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

Olga Grosman-Ezrahi

The world is always busy finding solutions for perimeter security, whether it is protecting critical infrastructures, airports etc. During the Video Analytics conference, organized by I-HLS at the Israeli Air Force Center in Herzliya, Mr. Rami Segal, CTO at Dr. Frucht Systems (DFSL), said that the solution of making security more efficient lies in laser detectors.

Today the use of Video Motion Detection (VMD) systems for security raises several problems. One of them is the fact that they turn our three-dimensional world into two dimensions. They make it hard for us to grasp the depth of the object in the camera and sometimes we lack a referential object to try and compare the object’s depth.

Another problem is clouds, creating shadows on the ground and being recognized as an object, triggering false alarms. This calls for filtering of either the false alerts or the real alerts. Another example is the flashes from cars’ headlights creating false alarms due to the same reason of the three dimensions. Furthermore, weather conditions also damage the camera’s video quality when rain, fog, and snow jam the received image and reduces the camera’s frame, making it harder to detect the target, says Segal.

Some might say that the solutions for this is thermal cameras, but those can be easily manipulated using several systems and even the IDF decided to stop using them. There is a single hour in the day, at sunrise and sunset, when the atmospheric temperature is close to that of the body, and so in that time the system cannot recognize an intruded approaching the perimeter. Some intruders were smart enough to take a wool blanket, place it on the flood so it will absorb the cold, and were completely invisible to the camera on top of the blanket.

Segal suggests an alternative: Using a laser radar, which can overcome most common problems and sometimes even overlaps with existing VMD systems. Laser radar is basically a rangefinder. The system can be programmed to pick up a specific range and once an intruder enters the radar’s range, they immediately show up on the radar.

In fact, the laser radar can protect not only against intruders but also against other vehicles such as UAVs. Installing several of these detectors around a critical facility can create a number of virtual walls as high as 180 meters and even be used for surveillance of the target using analytics applications. The detector can transfer coordinates to the security camera, allowing focusing and trailing a certain target as it progresses.

In conclusion, explained Segal, while VMD systems are passive, this laser radar is active. If we look across all existing technologies we can see how the laser offers a substantial advantage.

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