Content area
Full text
The Tyler, TX Police Department is using an in-car video recording system that records incidents within camera range, even before the officer inside triggers the recorder in their car or by radio.
This capability to capture events as they occur is a feature of the TPD's new Video Mobile Data Terminals (VMDTs). which are made by Coban Research and Technologies.
How does the VMDT manage to capture incidents as they happen, before an officer is even aware that they're taking place? The answer has to do with the VMDTs technology: although it looks like an incar laptop computer connected to an in-car video camera, it is much, much more.
Specifically, the VMDT is a mobile laptop computer with a built-in Digital Video Recorder (DVR). This DVR records video captured by the car's Sony video cameras-one shooting forward; the other through the rear windshield-on a removable hard disk. The VMDT comes with the front-facing camera as a standard feature; the rear-facing camera is optional.
At the beginning of each shift, the officer coming on duty signs out a 40 GB hard disk, plugs it into the VMDT via a Firewire connection, and hits the road. When used at the MPEG-I digital compression setting, the hard disk can store up to 66 hours of video. At the end of shift, the officer turns it in, and the video is transferred from the disk onto a departmental server, leaving the disk clean and ready to be used again.
Whether by Firewire or WiFi Wireless, it only takes about 90 seconds to transfer an hour's worth of video...