For years, every so often, a company offers a system that combines a fixed camera and a PTZ. The fixed camera covers a large area (like a parking lot) and the PTZ is slaved to it. Using analytics to monitor the fixed camera's FoV, objects are dedicated (cars, people, etc.) and the PTZ is then directed to the locations of those objects, potentially tracking them as the move across the area (e.g., parking lot).
Despite a number of companies offering this, it has never really seemed to take off.
There's a small company, Viewgle, who is now actively marketing this. Here's their demo video:
It includes a comparison of SD, MP and their system:
With one YouTube commenter exclaiming,
"The comparison is impressive, now I know there are something even better than my Megapixel cameras. Thumb up!"
Challenges
Fundamentally, this depends on auto tracking, which has challenges:
- If there is more than one moving object (person, car, etc.) the system can only monitor one at any given time. Meaning that the other objects are captured only at very low details by the fixed camera.
- Auto tracking has issues with adverse weather, low light, shadows, etc.
The net / net is typically an unreliable system that still misses a lot of things. While it makes for an amazing demo, operationally people tend to be disappointed.
Who's Using This Type of System?
That said, if you are using or have tried it out, what do you think?