He pointed out that . military jets are being scrambled to intercept aircraft at an average rate of once a day. Where airliners are involved in these missions, the interceptor pilots may be authorized to shoot down an airplane if it appears to pose a terrorist threat. Presently, interceptor pilots have a poor view into the cockpit, but a CCTV camera placed in the cockpit, using the AirPICS concept, could provide an up-close picture to ground controllers of cockpit activity. As such, the system can remove the ambiguity in an emergency situation.
The resolution is sufficient, Gollobin said, for "facial recognition and to confirm the identity of the pilots."
"Any radio transmission coming off the airplane in a terrorist situation is suspect," he added.
Other than cell phone messages from terrified flight attendants and passengers, relatively little is known about exactly what occurred aboard the four airplanes hijacked on 9/11.
The zeitgeist for downloadable video may be right:
* The Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001, passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, called for the deployment of video monitors "to alert pilots in the flight deck to activity in the cabin," since the pilots are now locked in the cockpit in front of hardened doors. Transmitting cabin or cockpit video to the ground takes the video concept to the next step.
* Many airlines already are deploying CCTV to cover the cabin or portions thereof, such as the forward entranceway and galley area. The imagery is fed to a monitor in the cockpit. JetBlue Airways [JBLU] is a notable example of this trend, and Air Seychelles announced recently its intent to install CCTV to monitor the cabin space aft of the hardened cockpit door.
* The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended cockpit video as a needed advance in recorder technology for purposes of accident investigations. Using a fisheye lens, the AirPICS system can record pilot activity, control positions and instrument displays in the cockpit.
The security and safety needs intersect.
Gollobin said some 2,500 . airliners already are equipped with seatback airphones, so the air-to-ground link for transmitting video already exists. The existing ground infrastructure for the airphones also can be used, taking the video and sending it to airline and government operations centers in the event of an emergency.
To answer the usual up-front questions about cost and weight, the AirPICS system could be installed for about, or slightly less, than the $40,000 cost of an enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS). Conceivably, the cost could be paid by the . Government. Precedent was established when the government ordered the installation of hardened cockpit doors and reimbursed operators some $300 million for this effort. The video system would relay information to the ground of activity on the cabin side of the locked cockpit door. Should terrorists penetrate the cockpit, the system would provide imagery of events on the fight deck. Depending upon the number of cameras, installed weight would be on the order of 30-50 pounds. For an aircraft with an installed airphone system and related antenna, AirPICS could be installed in about a day, or less (as was done for the flight tests last March).
We provide here a brief overview of important details:
The hardware
Lightweight color or black and white cameras can be installed, per customer desires, to cover the cockpit and cabin. Coverage of belly holds, other inaccessible spaces, and external areas, also can be provided. Cameras can switch between different modes (., daylight visual, infrared) depending upon lighting conditions. Up to 16 cameras can be installed per transmitter.
Video imagery can be stored on the flight data recorder (FDR) in highly compressed form, using the same air-to-ground transmission technology. Live pictures are transmitted through a data port connection to the on-board communications system.
The imagery is encrypted before transmission to the ground.
One of the key elements of this architecture is that imagery is only transmitted during an emergency; it does not flood ground stations with routine data.
Concept of operation
No imagery is transmitted outside the aircraft unless the pilot activates transmission. If the pilot is incapacitated, or ground operators perceive suspicious activity - such as an airplane off-course, not responding to radio queries and with its transponder broadcasting the hijacked code - the video downlink can be activated from the ground.
The recorder/transmitter continuously monitors all on-board cameras, starting before takeoff. A number of video frames are kept in an "active" (or pre-alarm) storage (several minutes worth), and all frames are preserved in permanent storage (several hours' worth). The pre-alarm storage allows officials on the ground to observe what happened in the moments before an emergency.
At the ground station, the first video is displayed automatically within 30 seconds, and images from as many as 16 cameras can be shown simultaneously within 60 seconds.
If the on-board sky phone system is used, images would be refreshed every second. The imagery can include audio.
To exploit the existing capability of installed airphone systems, the AirPICS concept is independent of available bandwidth. "We pick the desired resolution and adjust the frame rate," explained Ronald McKenzie, a Presearch senior vice president who has been involved in the technology's development and testing.
A dedicated downlink would provide faster connectivity and refresh rates. What Gollobin and McKenzie emphasized is that a high-resolution, all-light-conditions capability exists today to transmit video from the airliner to the ground in an emergency situation.
In fact, Presearch is not the only company jumping onto the video transmission bandwagon. Boeing's [BA] "Connexion" concept envisions video transmission from the aircraft "to better manage an onboard event," according to the company's promotional literature.
The reaction to the video concept was generally favorable. Hans Ephraimson, president of the Air Crash Victims Family Group, said, "This concept sounds interesting and desirable within the NTSB recommendations - and also probably feasible because the pilots' objections against cameras in the cockpit could be overcome, inasmuch as they cover the cabin and hold." Billie Vincent, an aviation secuirty expert, endorsed the concept, saying, "The AirPICS system would be a useful security tool in many security situations." >> Gollobin, email ; Ephraimson, e-mail <<
A Competing Video Product
"Connexion by Boeing is a two-way, satellite-based broadband communications system that can contribute to homeland security by enhancing flight crew and ground situational awareness using onboard video and audio, and two-way broadband transmission. The system has the ability to create an enhanced situational awareness environment linking the airplane, air traffic control, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Defense (DOD) into a common network to better manage an onboard event, and [it] offers federal air marshals a discrete and secure means for sharing and receiving real-time information with the flight crew and the ground."
Source: .com/ids/homeland_security/
About Presearch
Its video security products currently are protecting critical infrastructure (10 years, three generations of technology, and hundreds of systems in use at):
Nuclear power plants
Nuclear fuel processing facilities
Interstate highways
$35 million in annual sales.
In business nearly 40 years, with $500 million in government contracts to date.
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