Unmanned Surveillance 8-8-2010 by Johnston Blakley

So now it's the peak of summer and you are sweating it out in your car waiting for the Subject to drive out of the small cul-de-sac where she lives.  You are not able to setup on the tiny everyone-knows-everybody-else-cul-de-sac and upon a drive-by you catch a glimpse of her retrieving mail in a nightgown....at 2pm.  No way to stop and get the film and you are now on day three without any documentation of the Subject.  The heat is driving you mad.  Your mind races from plan A through Z. "Maybe if I had a helicopter/cam, a wireless transmitter camera, rented a bucket truck to look over the houses or rented a room from a neighbor"

Several months ago I placed a unmanned DVR/camera unit on the hallway of an apartment building.  The Subject did not have a car and the building had numerous exits.  After 13 hours (the unit's batteries last that long), I retrieved the unit and took it back to my office.  The video showed people coming and going and then........I started seeing the Subject coming and going as he carried furniture from the apartment.  This was an alleged injury case.

Years ago, unmanned surveillance was a pain.  PIs would load a bunch of batteries and an extra long-play or time-lapse VCR into the trunk of a car, install a camera into the headrest or Kleenex box on the dash and park it on the Subject's street early in the morning. The next day/week the PI would retrieve the car and review the film.
I'm glad that those days are over.

I do not like large complicated setups or exposed wires with large battery packs.
In other words, I like small all-in-one units with built in lithium battery packs or better yet, lithium AA batteries.  You will hear about PI's who setup elaborate Internet-viewable units that they can monitor via a cell phone 24/7.  If I was to purchase and install this type of unit, I'd charge more than the client would want to spend.  This article is not about an "installation" type of unmanned surveillance,  it's about the gun 'n run type.
Mount it on a pole, in a hallway or on a shelf and press record.

Over the last few years, I have seen some great little hand or even finger sized units that work very well for short periods of time.  I have come to prefer the SD or micro SD card variety over the power hungry hard drive type but until this year I have not seen DVR/cams that can take more than a 2 - 8 gig card.  This is okay if your unit can be set to record 1 frame every second or two but I like smooth 15 - 30 frames per second video.  Lately I have been seeing 32 and 64 gig capable DVR/cams.
A 32 gig card is great for standard definition DVR/cam with a fairly low bit rate as most of my needs are for less that two days of recording.
A 32 gig card is great for most of one day with 720 HD recording with a low bit rate and lower frame rate.
Full 1080 HD will burn up a 32 gig card in a handful of hours.

Here is the perfect unmanned camera that I predict will be a reality within the next two years.

Thumb size.
This already exists

1080 HD
This already exists in the "Flip Camera" size camcorders.
Less need for optical zoom or screw-on telephoto micro lenses
as distant Subjects will be much clearer than standard def and
the large video size/definition will allow for post crop/zoom.

500 gig SD card
The new SD card format is scheduled to reach 2 terabytes.
128 gig cards are just around the corner.

Low lux
This is a given with any camera.

Time/Date

Weather proofed
Why should you have to place the unit into a bulky waterproof container?

3 day polymer lithium battery
Not only are batteries getting more powerful but electronics
are requiring less power.  This has been the lagging advancement in
the evolution of unmanned surveillance.

File save before battery goes dead
Important that the unit not have a max file size stop or
if it does have periodic file save that it will continue to record.

Security code for playback
Just incase someone does find it.

45 degree lens for street / wider 70 degree lens for indoor

Digital motion detection (detection from the video screen and not some external sensor) is a bonus but not necessary and sometimes you don't realize that you set the sensitivity incorrectly until after you retrieve and review.

I'll try to have an unmanned surveillance class before Christmas as I'm testing several units over the next few months.