Real-time video surveillance for first responders in an emergency situation

The World Wide Web has made it possible for emergency personnel to monitor video camera scenes from all over the world; this is especially important in the event of an emergency or crisis situation. Unfortunately, it is possible that during some crises, the World Wide Web wonpsilat be available, either due to the outage of major infrastructures or through the malicious intentions of an adversary. Furthermore, the first responders that most need this type of surveillance capability may not have the in-house technical expertise it takes to maintain such a system. While working on a school security project several years ago, Sandia National Laboratories (funded by the U.S. National Institute of Justice) discovered the surprising usefulness of a common older, mature technology that is much less used today in security systems. Given that a facility already has an in-house video camera system installed, it was found that this device can actually be employed, in conjunction with a simple RF (radio frequency) system, to provide real-time video scenes to first responders when they arrive at, or near, a facility where an emergency situation is in progress. The cost to purchase and install this device at a particular facility (that would then allow this facility to be monitored via their own cameras by emergency personnel outside the facility) would be between $1000 and $2000. A first-responder team would need one set of receiving equipment, called the Responder Tool Kit, costing approximately $7500, that would then allow them to observe any facility that has this device installed. This technology is currently being transferred to a small business in New Mexico. Sandia installed and tested this system at a large rural school in New Mexico where the school's cameras were successfully monitored by a test team located several hundred yards away from the campus. Work still needing to be done by Sandia is to introduce additional security to the system so that it cannot be used for unauthorized purposes.