The Axis range of intelligent thermal cameras, with various analytics applications, is available from Duxbury Networking.
The cameras are suited to a wide range of security applications, including physical and virtual perimeter protection around critical infrastructure sites.
“Thermal cameras have specific and important roles to play in a complete surveillance system in which intrusion detection and incident identification are key requirements for the safeguarding of factories, storage depots, office complexes, airports, power plants and many other vulnerable, sites,” says Teresa Huysamen, a business unit manager at Duxbury Networking.
“Thermal cameras work by ‘seeing’ the heat energy radiated from objects – living or not. They convert the temperature of these objects into shades of grey which are darker or lighter than the background. This is why a thermal camera can operate at all times, even in complete darkness,” she explains.
“Thermal cameras are also less sensitive to different light conditions, such as shadows, backlight, darkness and even camouflaged objects. They are not compromised by difficult weather conditions, such as smoke, haze, dust and light fog. As they do not need floodlights to function, they also lower operational energy consumption.”
Huysamen says that adding video analytics functions to a thermal camera-based perimeter and area protection solution allows it to augment physical building security and emergency management regimes.
“Analytics functions allow the camera to scan for – and recognise – different patterns, such as motion or when a defined line is about to be crossed. Axis intelligent thermal cameras are thus able to detect a suspicious behaviour or an object, even in difficult lighting conditions, designating it as a threat as appropriate.
“Once the activity has been verified as threatening, the camera can act in response. For example, it can generate an alert when a person enters a predefined area within the camera’s field-of-view, and at the same time trigger flood lights and a visual pan/tilt/zoom camera to supply supporting video images to an operator. It can also automatically play a warning voice message over a loudspeaker.
“This makes it possible to acknowledge suspicious activity before a perimeter is breached or a secure site trespassed – and to visually verify what is going on before further action is taken,” she adds.