Sarnoff Corp. has received a subcontract from its parent company, SRI International, to improve the visual output from multiple sensor inputs for viewing on large display screens and enhance video analytics for real-time detecting and alerting in a port security environment. The work is being done under a five-year Navy contract that SRI won last year for work to develop and demonstrate advanced sensing and situational awareness technologies for port security (TR2, Nov. 14, 2007). Typically in port operations security centers a display screen shows an image or field of view from a single camera but Sarnoff will be using its legacy expertise in computer vision technology to “stitch” together inputs from various cameras to create a “panoramic” field of view on a single display that incorporates geo-reference points to a larger map as well as alert mechanisms, Chetna Bindra, director of business development at Vision Technologies, a division of Sarnoff, tells TR2. Improving the visualization experience is just one part of the work, she says. “The other part is doing real-time analytics on the images that are coming through so not only are you fusing them you are pre-processing and analyzing the information that is coming in,” Bindra says. The work for SRI will be ongoing with technology being developed and demonstrated along the way. The focus will be on the surface and air environment, at least initially. The main thing will be demonstrating the ability to track vessels, particularly small ones, moving into, out of, and around the harbor environment.