1-What is the best use of the DigiBank Security® product?
DigiBank Security® excels anywhere you must record a transaction between two or more individuals in great detail.
2-Tell me about the free demo trial at one of my locations?
We typically qualify clients within a day and usually perform a presentation either at their location or at our head office in Montreal to familiarize the buyer with the technology. From there we can very quickly install a single or a few complete DigiBank Security® systems at the client’s locations of choice including all support systems at no cost.
Usually demo sites run 30 to 60 days. On occasion more than 60 days typically in larger institutions to allow for everyone to experience the positive results of the product.
DigiBank Security® units are covered by one of the best warranties in the business, (3) three year parts and labor including hard drives . Please inquire regarding all the details on warranties.
5-How can your DDE (Digital Dome Engine) outperform a fixed camera?
Fixed cameras are static and as such can only reproduce and image of what is in front of the lens in a passive fashion. Fixed cameras will do this regardless of whether or not there actually is someone to record, whether that person is within the field of view (proper coverage and identifiable) and whether or not the conditions for recording are valid like an actual transaction, correct lighting conditions, subject is correctly centered within the capture area. Additionally you must use a fixed camera everywhere you need to gather information and provide for the resources for recording all these cameras at an increased cost and reduced system efficiency. A DDE is programmed to be proactive and dynamic and possess the ability to move within the designated capture area and perform multiple zoom/focus operations within a fraction of a second. The difference is clear and stunning image details with great precision for every event. Try asking that out of a fixed camera.
Yes, we use both full sized and micro fixed programmable DSP (Digital signal Processing) cameras in ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) and at any other area where an easily defined single viewing angle is required.
Basic video motion is not discriminate enough to detect the difference between a human subject and a lifeless object in motion. This creates false positives and the resultant non-valid images associated with such. We do on occasion employ video motion sparingly and only in addition to our main hardware detectors. Video content analysis is where we are migrating in addition to hardware sensors.
10-How long does you store images in a typical application?
In a typical application, a bank for example, with 8 teller locations, 2 main entrances, a side exit, 2 interior ATM’s and 2 exterior drive through ATM’s you can expect a minimum of 4 to 6 months of memory. Some of the conditions, which can affect storage, are the activity level, the type of activity, the duration of the activity, the lighting, the background of the surroundings etc.
The DigiBank Security® solution starts as a four Video input unit and can be ordered in increments of 4 up to a maximum of 16 video inputs per unit. From there the units are scaleable in an indefinite number over a network connection.
Yes, as an option for write-intensive applications, RAID 1 or RAID 1+0 are offered. Request for RAID level 5 are common but the performance of RAID 5 will begin to substantially decrease in a write-heavy environment.
13-Can I monitor my own DigiBank Security® systems?
Yes, the playback software is free or you can use a Web based browser.
14-What inputs and devices can I integrate with DigiBank Security®?
The interface connections on a basic unit are:
-16 hard wire alarm inputs (NC or NO open collector, software selectable)
-2 to 8 (with expansion modules) POS data stream devices for interfacing to cash registers, alarm panels, card access or any other serial data stream.
-PTZ controls in RS 485 or RS 232
-4 USB ports
-2 parallel ports
-4 to 16 video inputs
-1 to 4 programmable video outputs
-1 network TCP/IP connection ports
-1 analog or ISDN modem port
-1 of each, keyboard, SVGA monitor and mouse port
15-Why do you not perform any post processing on the image files?
We provide the very best available images at the time of capture by rendering proper zoom and angle ratios while taking into account all other controllable variances such as lighting and subject position. This negates the need for further post processing as all available resources are assigned in the pre processing domain to start with a perfect image.
16-Can my DigiBank Security® be upgraded in the future?
Yes, we make every effort to provide new features and options which are backwards compatible to the extent of the possible. Usually the memory gets upgraded first followed by the connection type and the management software.
The DDE usually get installed in an area free of obstructions, either on the ceiling or wall mounted. The exact position is not critical as all capturing parameters are programmable as long as a line of site is available to the area of interest.
19-Can I reuse my existing cameras with your DigiBank Security® ?
Yes, you can use your existing fixed cameras as long as they are of acceptable quality, however some DSD ™ functions may not be available specifically the features relating to auto piloting and auto adjustments.
DigiBank Security® uses Wavelet compression, one of the most effective methods of image compression. The algorithm is based on multi resolutional analysis. This part of the mathematical analysis has been actively developed during last 15 years. Like the traditional JPEG compression, wavelet compression algorithm presents an image as sets of real coefficients. Most of the wavelet coefficients of a typical image are nearly zero, and the image thus is well approximated with a small number of large wavelet coefficients
The advantage of wavelet compression is that, in contrast to JPEG, wavelet algorithm does not divide image into blocks, but analyzes the whole image. The characteristic of wavelet compression is to achieve the best compression ratio, while maintaining a superior image quality.
21-How can DSD ™ (Digital Security Diagnostics) tell if an alarm input is intermittent?
The DSD ™ Analyzer examines DigiBank Security ® 's External Events log (i.e. the record of triggered sensors) or any other Digital Video system’s input log that is accessible and identifies a sensor’s failure modes: Shorted, open, intermittent (either high or low number of hits). Upon detection of a failure, DSD ™ notifies the operator via email.
As part of the DSD ™ process, a copy of the site’s Audit Trail is downloaded at least once a day. DSD ™ examines this copy and reports anomalies.
If a sensor is triggered, an event is registered in the Audit Trail indicating the date, time, and sensor name. If a sensor is open, it will never log an event in the Audit Trail. For each monitored site, DSD ™ compares the number of triggered sensors to the number of known sensors. If there is a disparity then it suggests that one or more sensors have not triggered. DSD ™ maintains a record of each sensor that failed to generate events . Sensors which are triggered too often or not enough are compared to the historical data file which was populated over x amount of time, any out of range hits are considered defective. At week’s end, it compares the results of the previous seven days. If will report, via email to the operator, the names of all sensors that have not triggered in the past seven days.
22-Can DSD ™ alert me if a camera has a bad image at a specific time during the day?
Yes, the scripts for DSD ™ can be programmed to execute anytime during the day and at whatever required frequency.
23-What is Self-Healing hardware and software agent?
This process actually is an adjunct to DSD ™ whereby anytime at catalogued and remote fixable failure is reported, as series of alignments are activated to reestablish the original intended specs. This process is automatic under most conclusive failures and can render the site serviceable within 5 minutes. The hardware portion is a low cost black box option available for all major digital video recorders. The resolve rate for DigiBank's ® with this feature is a documented 82% success.
24-Can DSD automatically call my Video support Engineer upon specific failures?
Yes, the interface can be easily programmed to contact whomever in whatever fashion you desire.
25- Why don’t we publish detailed technical specs on our products?
Specifications are great when they are accurate, not too optimistic and relevant. Comparing the specs of a DigiBank Security® system solution to a DVR (Digital video recorder) is like comparing apples to oranges. To arrive at any meaningful numbers one should understand the technology first. For example a 640 by 480 image might be just acceptable with a common system whereas with our processing and DDEs we achieve stunning output at that resolution setting. At the end of the day no matter the technology behind the product, the processing or the size of the marketing machine a manufacturer is willing to put behind the box the real test is how well did the system reproduce the event and are the subjects in the image identifiable and of use for the intended purpose.
Frame differencing is a video compression technology. An image reference is taken, and then subsequent images compare pixel content to the reference. Those pixels that are the same refer to the reference image, thus reducing the amount of data stored in each image after the reference.
With regards to DigiBank Security®, frame differencing is a system level setting that may be disabled, enabled with best quality, or enabled with best compression. With all other settings are their defaults, turning off frame differencing will result in typical file sizes of approximately 15 KB; best quality results in file sizes of approximately 5 KB; best compression results in file sizes of approximately 3 KB. The default setting is on with best quality. Of course actually file sizes will vary greatly. The files sizes referenced here are representative of typical applications.
Keep in mind with the DigiBank Security® application the original image is zoomed in either the optical or digital domain with all necessary details in the full frame, thus no post processing of the image will be required. Under such conditions a lower resolution and smaller file size can be attributed with no negative consequences.
This would produce an unacceptable resolution for most other systems but with DigiBank Security® the results are positive and the benefit is a reduced storage space requirement.
27- Can I select whether or not to use frame differencing?
Yes, the feature can be turned on with best quality, with highest compression or completely turned off. This is a valuable feature when one considers the possible liability issues with frame differencing and conditional refresh. Evidently in a few cases video evidence based on this compression processing has been rejected out of court. The issue is in the way the technology make decisions on whether or not to refresh the frame. Under certain conditions it may be possible the processing ignores new information based on similar color or shape attributes as the image background.
