Princeton professor examines 'smart' surveillance cameras

March 27, 2006 —

by Brandon Kish

Wayne Wolf, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton University, describes the multiprocessor system architecture of Sony's upcoming Playstation 3 during his Tuesday night lecture about systems on chips. Wolf also visited engineering classes and gave a lecture on surveillance cameras during his visit on campus.

Wayne Wolf, an expert in the area of high-tech surveillance and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton University, gave a lecture on smart cameras Wednesday night in the Samuel D. Marble Lecture Hall.

During the lecture, Wolf expounded on the many uses of such cameras, including surveillance and entertainment, as well as commerce.

"They would provide businesses with customer information as well as employee activity," Wolf said, speaking of the several applications of smart cameras.

Wolf also stressed the fact that "25 million cameras are in the U.S., and two million are sold each year. There is too much video for us to observe." Smart cameras will solve this problem, he argued.

These cameras will strengthen security at airports, subway stations, ports, and other places that see massive human traffic flows, he said. Wolf used the Shinjuku train station in Tokyo as an example, where two million people travel in and out each day. According to Wolf, cameras in a station such as this would provide human detection, track movements of people, and analyze their behaviors.

Some of the camera's drawbacks include limited accuracy and precision. But he reassured the audience by reminding them of Moore's Law, which states "the complexity of an integrated circuit, with respect to minimum component cost, will double in about 18 months." Essentially, the technology will only continue to improve.

Wolf received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He has been published several times, including "Computers as Components: Principles of Embedded Computing System Design," a widely used textbook in the field of Computer System Design.