toxictoad Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 Some time ago my mountain bike was stolen from the city centre, during the day and they used (presumably) a pair of bolt croppers. The police could offer nothing to help and then I started thinking that whoever stole my bike must have been seen by cameras in the city centre and for a while I started looking out for them wondering how many there were and how hard it would be to do anything without being seen/recorded. Sure I understood that with it being such a petty crime they wouldn't bother looking at the CCTV footage but it did get my thinking. Then I started thinking about a website that could show where all the cameras are. As with most of my thinking it doesn't get far out of my head, but then I remembered the idea and did a little search. I couldn't find anything at the time like a website showing where cameras are but I did stumble on this http://forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?t=24819 that I found interesting and useful. So now I was just wondering what others thought about it? The website idea was a user generated site showing where cameras are all over the place, what areas they cover (approx viewing angle) etc. People could upload photos of the cameras, I don't know whether the google maps API could be used so to give a better view etc of the location. Something like that anyway. I guess it wouldn't have helped me in any way and maybe this could be used negatively but it was an idea I wanted to throw out there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mchl Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 Speaking of CCTV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98u1HuqS7Nk&eurl This is a music video of group called The Get Out Clause They did it by performing in front of CCTV cameras in London, and then using Data Protection Act to get their footage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxictoad Posted December 27, 2008 Author Share Posted December 27, 2008 Speaking of CCTV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98u1HuqS7Nk&eurl This is a music video of group called The Get Out Clause They did it by performing in front of CCTV cameras in London, and then using Data Protection Act to get their footage. thanks for the link, some creative video editing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corbin Posted December 27, 2008 Share Posted December 27, 2008 That really would be pretty interesting.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peranha Posted December 27, 2008 Share Posted December 27, 2008 Being I install and repair CCTV equipment, I can tell you where all the cameras are in the areas that I service which is a 5 state region. Sadly, as stated in the link, this info is not required to be given out to anyone, they are just required to post that "This building may be recorded by video and audio equipment." sort of saying. It doesnt have to be in a specific area, just on the entrance to the build and they are covered. Now days almost every outdoor camera at a government facility is a PTZ "moveable camera", so even if you were to take pictures, etc, it may not have helped in your case as the camera may not have been pointed at the bike rack, or where ever you had your bike tied up to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxictoad Posted December 28, 2008 Author Share Posted December 28, 2008 Being I install and repair CCTV equipment, I can tell you where all the cameras are in the areas that I service which is a 5 state region. Sadly, as stated in the link, this info is not required to be given out to anyone, they are just required to post that "This building may be recorded by video and audio equipment." sort of saying. It doesnt have to be in a specific area, just on the entrance to the build and they are covered. Now days almost every outdoor camera at a government facility is a PTZ "moveable camera", so even if you were to take pictures, etc, it may not have helped in your case as the camera may not have been pointed at the bike rack, or where ever you had your bike tied up to. Thanks peranha you made a good point about the focus of the cameras. Lets say for arguments sake that I was to put this info together, what would you be able to provide? Exact locations? For my idea I'd only be interested in cameras that are viewing public areas and not private bt I guess if people wanted to add private camera locations it wouldn't be excluded, just have to be differentiated between. I'm in the UK and the only idea I had was to make notes of where the cameras are as I walk/cycle around then adding these to google maps but this probably wouldn't show what the camera types are or what they can see. After looking around at online CCTV footage some have a very wide range they can move, some giving 360° with quite a lot of zoom etc so I guess just the actual locations of the camera could be certain without inside knowledge of the cameras. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peranha Posted December 28, 2008 Share Posted December 28, 2008 Yeah, they have quite sophisticated cameras. 360° view cameras are not that uncommon now. I have installed cameras with a 42x optical zoom, with 16x digital zoom. They can look in the windows of the school 3/4 mile away, and read what is written on the chalk board/white board. I could only give the public ones, where they are located (ones I can remember), as far as zoom, camera type, etc. they are different, and I would not be able to remember all of them. It depends on what the customer want to see. you can get a lens from 2.6mm (which is a wide angle about 90°) to a 32mm (which is a zoom lens used to view down a few blocks and see what is happening. 20° view is about all.) It is very hard to say what a camera can view because the lenses are interchangeable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted December 28, 2008 Share Posted December 28, 2008 Yeah, they have quite sophisticated cameras. 360° view cameras are not that uncommon now. I have installed cameras with a 42x optical zoom, with 16x digital zoom. They can look in the windows of the school 3/4 mile away, and read what is written on the chalk board/white board. I could only give the public ones, where they are located (ones I can remember), as far as zoom, camera type, etc. they are different, and I would not be able to remember all of them. It depends on what the customer want to see. you can get a lens from 2.6mm (which is a wide angle about 90°) to a 32mm (which is a zoom lens used to view down a few blocks and see what is happening. 20° view is about all.) It is very hard to say what a camera can view because the lenses are interchangeable. gd that's not a camera that's a telescope, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peranha Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 gd that's not a camera that's a telescope, lol. yeah, it was only 13k, and you want to make sure the polarity of the power was correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mchl Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 ... and you want to make sure the polarity of the power was correct. Why? Don't they have circuits that prevent them from failing due to reverse polarisation? I worked with a lot of industrial automation hardware and most of it would not fail from that (I won't say any, because I did not test all of it ). Now... putting 110/230AC, where 24DC should go... this usually yields some spectacular results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peranha Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 ... and you want to make sure the polarity of the power was correct. Why? Don't they have circuits that prevent them from failing due to reverse polarisation? I worked with a lot of industrial automation hardware and most of it would not fail from that (I won't say any, because I did not test all of it ). Now... putting 110/230AC, where 24DC should go... this usually yields some spectacular results. Most cameras are duel polarity (work on 24VAC, and 12VDC in either position) Some cameras are strictly 12VDC, which have a heater and fan in them which needs positive on one post and negative on another. I have blown many cameras because I thought that they were duel polarity, and in fact were not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 so they don't make one prong bigger than the other, or position the prongs in such a way that there's only one way to plug it in? Hell, even my $5 toaster does that... or am I making it out to be too simple? I fully admit I am not an electrician or electronics engineer or whoever sorts those things out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mchl Posted December 29, 2008 Share Posted December 29, 2008 Toasters are not meant to be installed by qualified staff... for a reason... Or maybe that's the other way round? They usually put very clear signs as to what-goes-where... but accidents happen. A colleague of mine toasted some pretty expensive equipment when he did not check required voltage. Luckily he did that in the office, not at the client's place, and even more luckily damage did not propagate outside of power module, so we were able to replace it at the fraction of cost of new stuff. But the look of his face!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peranha Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 The cameras that we install come with a pigtail on them, and have 2 screw terminals (unmarked) that you screw one wire to positive, and one wire to negative. It is a guessing game, but having done this for 4 years now, I have got it down (for the most part). Then when we install new cameras, it is all different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted December 30, 2008 Share Posted December 30, 2008 Toasters are not meant to be installed by qualified staff... for a reason... Or maybe that's the other way round? One would think that more efforts/failsafe mechanisms would be put into a $13k item than $5 item, regardless of who is supposed to install them ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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