The Seven Principles of Mobility

Video technology has grown increasingly sophisticated over the past century.

However, the thinking behind video applications has not kept pace with its technical advancement. Many law enforcement agencies still think in terms of a camera-on-a-pole – an unmanned monitor, a tool for surveillance or documentation.

Wireless video has developed this approach to its farthest limits. It has brought a new mobility to cameras and a new versatility in image-delivery.

At first glance, Mobile Video resembles Wireless Video. The applications, and the outcomes, are quite different, though. We don’t consider Mobile Video as the next stage of video technology, but the new stage of information technology.

This view is consistent with our corporate goal: developing systems that raise the efficiency of information transfer. Our Mobile Video systems enable specialists in manufacturing, oil and gas, public safety, medicine, and even real estate, to make decisions quicker and with better data. In this regard, we aren’t just moving video images; we’re raising the standards for information delivery.

In developing Mobile Video technology, we had to consider what features we could add to a video system that would make it more informative; that is, more useful in gathering key information. Wireless video had taken a step in this direction, but the flow of information stopped at an on-site video display, or at a video recording unit.

The difference between information-system and video-transmission technology is significant. To help clarify the difference, we’ve defined several standards for Mobile Video that are essential for making information transfer more efficient.

1. True Mobility: i.e., uncompromised accessibility. The user must be able to capture video from any perspective offered to the eye.
2. Real-Time Display: that is, a continual, sequential display of images, not a buffered image or an image reassembled from a stream of data. At present, our real-time display can show up to 25 seconds of delay between capture and display on the web. And while this delay will shrink with further development of information media, it is already significantly shorter than the 15- to 90-minute delays just to present a single, still image.
3. Secure Data: video data must be confined to authorized personnel. The data should be protected from interception, while recognizing that no RF transmission can be rendered perfectly impenetrable to all but the desired recipient.
4. Recordable functions: the video data must provide a workable, permanent record of events, which can be conveniently scanned for data of interest.
5. Ease of Use: despite the technical ingenuity of Mobile Video, we have been worked to make EYE-View easy to operate. Overly complex systems run the risk of misuse, or simply not being used. Non-specialists, non-engineers, and non-scientists must be able to use it.
6. Durability: any technology used ‘in the field’ must be able to tolerate shocks, falls, and misuse. Mobile Video cannot just apply ‘ivory tower’ engineering.
7. Affordability: any investment in new Law Enforcement technology should offer a reasonable Return on Investment. The purchaser of a Mobile System should be able to calculate savings based on realistic, current operations, not future, idealized scenarios. This point is a corollary to Point #6, since only a durable product can offer a profitably long working life. Short-lived technologies rarely return their investment to buyers.