RTLS, GPS and video surveillance. Instead or together?
Detect, position (locate) and identify ...
This is important not only when catching the intruder. It is also necessary to know the location of a specific object - a person, a vehicle, cargo, a certain item - for effective process control, prevention of emergency incidents and liquidation of their consequences, finally, even during such routine operations as inventory, (for example, when transferring a shift).
Unfortunately, unlike the process control system, where information about the process parameters is quickly and accurately determined by the control and measuring equipment, the positioning and identification of moving objects in most cases cannot be performed without the participation of a person and human-specific errors - voluntary or involuntary. Whether it’s a girl with a scanner in a warehouse or a security guard in front of a dozen or so monitors, the influence of the human factor is inevitable. And with the intensification and increase in the scale of production, the price of a possible error becomes higher.
Therefore, the automatic identification and positioning of moving objects without human intervention is becoming an increasingly urgent task.
Possible solutions will be discussed in this topic.
Nowadays, GPS (mainly for vehicle monitoring), video surveillance, and in recent years, real-time positioning systems - RTLS - are most often used for detection, positioning and identification. However, each of these systems has its own limitations.
Satellite navigation systems (GPS, GLONASS) provide positioning and identification in large areas, but do not work indoors and require that the monitored object be equipped with a device with a unique code (in fact - a label).
CCTV systemsdetect and accompany many targets, signal possible violations, but are not able to reliably identify (identify) the object of observation. Especially in cases where the object of interest must be distinguished from a multitude of similar ones (to find the intruder among the multitude of “ours”).
RTLS are used for various purposes in a variety of applications , allowing you to control the location and movement of objects and reliably identify them both outdoors and indoors. But monitored objects, as in the case of GPS, must be tagged, and objects that are not tagged, the system "does not see."
It turns out that none of the listed systems can fully solve the task. A solution could be the sharing of these systems. Such integration opens up opportunities that are not available to systems individually.
Integration Opportunities
End-to-end monitoring of the fleet
Integration of satellite navigation (GLONASS, GPS) and RTLS makes it possible to control the movement of vehicles not only in the open space where there is direct line of sight to the satellites, but using RTLS and in covered courtyards, buildings, and structures. The automated system for managing vehicles and / or logistics will receive data not only about driving routes, speeds and delays in the transport and / or cargo, but also about the time and place of loading / unloading, maintenance and repair, and downtime while waiting for service.
Automatic detection and signaling of intruders
In the case of joint use of the intelligent video surveillance system and RTLS, it becomes possible to compare RTLS data for the identification and positioning of controlled ("their") objects with video surveillance data. For example, if the motion sensor of a video system detects a new object, and RTLS does not detect such an object in this sector, the system will give a signal to the guard about the possible intrusion of an outsider, while an image of the intruder will be displayed on the panel and its location will be indicated.
Remote recognition
Using RTLS and an inexpensive video camera at the entrances to protected areas, you can automatically transfer to the access control system and / or remotely output to the operator’s console a video image of the person in front of the camera and his photo from the account card. Image comparison and authentication can be done by an automated access control system or (cheaper option) security officer. In the second case, several checkpoints can be remotely served by one controller. This method is more reliable than tolerance on cards, and cheaper than recognition of biometric data (retina, fingerprints).
Autonomous automated control
The combination of the two previous options for the joint use of video surveillance and RTLS allows you to organize automated control of remote objects or individual premises, territories, buildings, structures without the direct presence of security officers - dispatchers, security guards, watchmen, etc.
I have listed just a few of the most obvious options for sharing satellite navigation systems, video surveillance systems and real-time positioning systems. The specific solutions will depend on the tasks being solved in a particular application (in particular, one of such solutions in the energy sector is mentioned in the publication ).
But in any case, the joint use of fundamentally different systems for detection, localization, identification and monitoring allows us to take the next step towards reducing the influence of the human factor when receiving and entering data into automated control systems in an area where this was not previously possible.
Everything is in the hands of developers of automated systems.
The possibilities of the new RTLS technology for many can be found here .