Security systems, video surveillance equipment

Security, access control and privacy are important issues in modern society. Government, commercial and private entities continue to seek effective means to control access to either property or information by authorized individuals while excluding access by all others. The use of video cameras, particularly to monitor the activities and comings and goings of individuals at various locations, has become widespread in recent years as security concerns have increased. Security monitoring systems are customarily installed for the purpose of allowing the security guards to visually observe remote sites for detection of potential criminal actions. Video surveillance systems include a number of video cameras that are connected via cables to a main monitor installed in the security control center. Automated security systems have become extremely valuable for protecting highly sensitive facilities. Alarm conditions are declared when a sensor detects an intrusion or other abnormal event within the field of view of a camera. Many security systems include multiple video cameras, motion detectors, heat sensors, smoke detectors, as well as various door and window traps that have been placed in a building structure. A security access system that provides substantially secure access control, and is not based on either a key device or user knowledge, is a biometric identification system. A biometric identification system accepts biometric information from a user of the system and attempts to identify and control access by the user by matching the provided information against information belonging to registered users of the system. Among these biometric features, automated fingerprint identification system has provided the most popular and successful solution, mainly due to the uniqueness of fingerprints. The characteristics of a sample fingerprint may be compared to information for reference fingerprints already in a database to determine proper identification of a person, such as for verification purposes. Electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems are well known and are typically used for article identification and/or detection. A primary application of an EAS system is theft deterrence or to prevent the unauthorized removal of articles from a controlled area.