Remote Video:Monitoring The World From Your H/PCWill Windows CE be the driving force behind mobile video in the new millennium?The popular science fiction series Star Trek showcased a lot of futuristic technology, from warp drive to portable communicators. It's interesting that the Star Trek communicators are audio devices -- even Flash Gordon had a video communicator. Perhaps the show's writers knew that in reality, the technology involved with mobile video communications is not trivial. Well, in reality, things are about to change. In the first year of the new millennium, mobile video communications will become part and parcel of daily life. And the driving force behind this development may very well be small, inexpensive, color-screen devices powered by Windows CE. Off-the-shelf technologies the keyMass consumerism has produced many technological breakthroughs. But a simple, cost-effective way to send and receive video anywhere remains the holy grail for many product developers. At the same time, and somewhat ironically, the search for the CE 'killer-app,' the one that will bring Windows CE hypergrowth and respectability, has so far exasperated mobile computing strategists. Mobile video has been available for the past ten years -- but at too high a price for widespread acceptance. The secret to bringing costs down is using off-the-shelf technologies. Part of this solution involves the use of public GSM/PCN (mobile phone) networks for transmitting data as opposed to costly private networks. In the UK the four mobile network operators cover 99% of the country and provide data rates at 9600 b/s baud. Soon they will be going to 14400 baud. This may not seem like much, but using currently available data compression technology it is sufficient to achieve frame rates as high as 14 per second. (This is within striking distance to the 17 frames per second needed by the visual cortex to assimilate real time video.) Video transmission and monitoring systems have traditionally been complex technical affairs, with no reasonably priced one-box solutions. Windows CE is poised to change this. Not only do the newer Windows CE devices have powerful processor and high-resolution color displays, most have built-in communications capabilities. In addition, wireless transmitter/receivers are becoming more widely available. Finally, we are starting to see more digital camera solutions for Window CE. The Sharp has had a digital camera PC Card available for over a year for its Mobilon 4500/4600 and now the new MobilonPro PV 5000 (see Screen 1). And rumor has it that Casio has already released a CompactFlash digital camera in Japan, which works with it's E-100 Palm-size PC. Even though these two examples are still-frame cameras, there's little technological difference between still-frame and video. More digital camera cards, still-frame and video, are just round the corner. Open Circuit Television and Windows CEThe Security sector and particularly CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) has most readily accepted and implemented mobile video. Although Security is traditionally a very technologically conservative sector, a concept called OCTV (Open Circuit Television) has emerged. OCTV allows a camera positioned anywhere to feed video through commercial mobile networks to monitoring positions anywhere in the world. Windows CE is involved at both ends. In the UK (the largest user of CCTV systems in the world), OCTV is already being used in smaller towns which cannot afford CCTV, and by roaming police officers. Because OCTV is wireless at both camera and monitoring ends, there are none of the installation costs associated with CCTV (digging holes in the ground to lay down wiring - typically 80 per cent of total system cost). And because it is portable at the monitoring end, control room costs (usually of the order of $150,000 per year for three security guards) are considerably reduced. (The TriPad from Sharp has already been used as an effective monitoring device for mobile systems; see Screen 2.) OCTV is totally flexible at both ends of the CCTV system, allowing for rapid deployment. It is a rare four-way win-win situation; the end-user gets lower prices, the mobile network providers get massive data traffic, the CE manufacturers get a volume market, and the CCTV industry discovers a completely new and untapped market. Inexpensive solutions to mobile video needsWindows CE Handheld PCs are also being used as keyboard controllers within the CCTV sector, replacing made-to-order $1,500 keyboards, which require intelligence for telemetry control. With voice recognition, voice feedback, handwriting recognition, etc., they are ideal for this environment. In addition, they can use their IrDA capability to configure cameras positioned on lampposts and sides of buildings without having to send a technician out to open up the box. In fact, an entire CCTV system can be controlled by a single guard, from a single H/PC. Presently, UK Police are experimenting with transmitting video to and from Palm-size PC devices using GSM/PCN networks. Police officers carry Ps/PCs connected to chip CCD cameras on their lapels, and with one touch are able to send live video to other police officers, headquarters, helicopters, police cars, etc. The implementation of MP3 technology in Windows CE devices will considerably improve the audio performance of such applications. The low cost and portability of such systems will bring them to Neighborhood Watch schemes. And the ability to rapidly deploy such systems is a key advantage for emergency health workers, police forces, special services and the military. Systems are currently being prototyped to enable physicians, paramedics, firefighters and other emergency service personal to pass live-action video back to remote specialists. All these OCTV applications will cost far less than closed circuit, private network systems. Video conferencing has traditionally used the now mundane ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network). With 56k modems readily available in many of the newer Windows CE devices, there is now little advantage in using the more expensive, and only slightly faster 64k ISDN lines. In addition, working practices have changed and the idea of groups of people congregating in rooms at multiple locations for video conferencing now seems overly complicated and wasteful. Once again, solutions using Windows CE H/PCs connected to VGA monitors and digital cameras, and marketed through traditional video conferencing routes, have taken off. Image processing, the intense manipulation of still and moving images through the adoption of complex algorithms such as neural networks, wavelet compression, and fractal transforms, have to date been reserved for erudite and niche applications. This is a difficult task requiring a great deal of processing power, which can now be done on small, inexpensive Handheld PCs. This combination has been readily adopted to observe shoppers' behavior in retail environments, gathering shopping mall statistics, count footfall over retail business' doorways, etc. This system uses small CE devices linked to cameras to capture, count traffic and transmits the data through normal RF (as opposed to GSM) methods to a sentinel monitoring station. This can be used for a myriad of applications including conformance to fire regulations in night clubs and entertainment centers, selling space in shopping malls, safety of sports stadiums, retail demographics, etc. At a cost of less than $1000 per door this is a very effective solution. Surveillance systems for the domestic environment and night workers (social workers, outreach workers, etc) have also been developed. You can get a small 6" dome camera for around $500, which simply plugs into your telephone socket. You switch it on as you leave - like an answering machine and from anywhere in the world you can connect through your CE device which is attached to your mobile phone via the IrDA or by wire, and actually see what's going on at home. I have done this myself from Belgium and France back to my home in London. Image clarity vs. frame ratesDifferent applications have different frame rate requirements. For example, security applications are sometimes used for crime verification or evidence in a prosecution. The quality of the pictures is important. But faster frame rates require higher data compression, and this can cause artifacts to appear in the picture, making it less useful in security applications. Here, frames rate slower than one per second will suffice as long as the quality of the picture is good. The requirement for clarity of picture over refresh rate is the same in the domestic environment where customers would rather see the details about their home from anywhere else in the world. The combination of a digital camera and an ultra-portable color-screen handheld is impressive. It provides considerable processing power at the camera and reception ends, and enables some significant and complex tasks to be tackled in a small footprint. One current application involves the combination of CE devices and thermal cameras mounted on oil buoys and linked to shore via a wireless network (see Screen 3). The Windows CE device processes the image from the thermal camera and detects and identifies passing ships, day or night, by their thermal characteristics. More significantly it can identify whether oil is being flushed out of holds of oil tankers (an illegal activity). The Windows CE device relays the coordinates of the spill, along with the picture and the tracking of the event, back to the authorities via traditional methods. Although highly specialized, this kind of application displays the advantage a CE system has: low cost, small footprint, respectable processing power, and reliable. This combination cannot be matched by any other mechanism other than CE. The future of mobile video and Windows CEMicrosoft will release their Media Player on the CE platform in October 1999 and a great number of multimedia applications are being prepared with this in mind. For example, multimedia language tuition software is often used for teaching languages in schools and as an aid to the traveling businessman or tourist. This type of software is usually available on CD-ROM for desktop PCs and cassette tapes for audio tape players. Versions are being developed to play on Palm-size PCs. The recent release of MP3 gives the Casio E-105 and other Palm-size PCs full multimedia capabilities. It is clear that Microsoft and other developers are behind the video/CE/GSM integration. I believe that video, possibly with an audio channel, will be the most significant single application to run on CE devices in the future. If there was ever a "killer application" for Windows CE, this is it. Mobile video and Windows CE appear to be a match made in Microsoft heaven, and may become the de facto standard for the next millennium.
Screen 1: Sharp's Digital Camera Card slips into the PC Card slot of the Mobilon 4500, 4600 and PV 5000, adding a single-image digital camera to Sharp's H/PCs. Screen 2: The Sharp TriPad H/PC Pro has been used as a monitoring device for OCTV systems. Shown here are two camera views from a security system displayed on the TriPads 640x480, 256 color screen. Screen 3: One current application involves the combination of CE devices and thermal cameras mounted on oil buoys and linked to shore via a wireless network. The Windows CE device processes the image from the thermal camera and sends information to monitoring stations via wireless.
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Dr. Olinga
Ta'eed is involved in the development of mobile video solutions utilizing Windows CE
devices. He is a shareholder in a number of companies involved in this, including Pedagog
Limited (10 man CE development team), Shawley Limited (CCTV Manufacturing), and Prestige
Network Limited (Language Technology). He has held senior positions in a number of other
companies and is the recipient of awards including the 1995 European IT Award. He remains
external PhD Supervisor at the University of Wolverhampton, Department of Computing
Studies, and has over 50 papers to his credit, including for The Times.