Jay Clemens
A laboratory run by Lockheed Martin’s Sandia subsidiary and Armed Response Team have collaborated to develop an outdoor security system.
Sandia National Laboratories said May 19Â it has configured and tested the security system through the state-funded New Mexico Small Business Assistance program, run by the New Mexico legislature in an effort to offer lab support to small businesses.
Armed Response proposed the technology development plan to NMSBA in 2007 as CEO Dave Meurer sought an outdoor monitoring system that could eliminate false alarms.
“It begins with a computer connected to the camera looking at changes in pixels in successive frames of video,†said Dave Furgal, Sandia engineer.
“The algorithms identify a group of pixels moving in the same direction with purpose, as opposed to a tree that moves back and forth,†added Furgal.
The system then transmits data of a colored box that contains those pixels to a central alarm station in order to alert the operator to a potential foe, Sandia says.
“The colored box focuses the operator’s attention on where to look in the video scene and weeds out extraneous video that doesn’t matter,†Furgal said.
Sandia worked to trick the system with different interferences in order to validate the sensor.
