A new project outlined as “one of the most advanced city-wide intelligent security systems ever conceived” is underway in the windy city, Chicago, IL. The Operation is known as “Virtual Shield” which will be one of the world’s largest video security deployments upon completion. Think you know Big Brother? Just wait.

Chicago, the third largest city in the United States, employs a unified fiber network throughout much of the downtown area. This network links thousands of surveillance cameras, both new and old, to a system that not only stores images, but monitors the video as well.

Although, Chicago’s current implementation of “Virtual Shield” is only the first phase, which was aided by IBM, city experts, and network engineers. The goal was to create a surveillance system that would capture, monitor, and index all video fed into the system. The network is expanding.

In Phase 2, Chicago plans to give operation Virtual Shield the technology to automatically recognize license plates and perform intelligent search capabilities.

Chicago has already laid plans to use the system for tracking traffic congestion, but one has to question whether operation Virtual Shield’s intelligent trending projections could be used to route any one of the over 3 million people who commute Chicago, daily. 

Imagine a world where a surveillance system will be able to spot any vehicle, at any location, and determine the driver, his address, and his location, at any time.

Virtual Shield is being justified as a monitor for “homeland security,” but at what point do you draw the line between security and privacy? And who determines the threshold between monitoring and spying?

Monitoring would be one thing, the presence of a known camera in a public location; however, questions are raised as Chicago works with California-based, Firetide, who is known for its wireless, covert video cameras.

Firetide will also be aiding Chicago in adding hundreds of additional cameras throughout the city, all of which implement wireless technology. This raises many concerns about the security of these cameras. Who will have access to view these wireless devices? How secure is the encryption on these cameras?

In addition, Chicago will be using IBM’s own Omnicast software, touted as “the most advanced IP-based video surveillance recording software in the industry.” 

This software has the ability to adapt to virtually any camera, whether it be fixed, mobile, IP-based, analog, a camera from a sister agency, or a camera from a private enterprise, all while recording, analyzing every video stream, processing any and every licence plate, charting, learning, and mapping, anywhere at any time, all the time.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 9:08 pm under Online video, Security.  Print This Post

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