The Homeland-Security Neitghborhood Watch
By Matthew Brzezinski
In February, Jay Walker, the founder of the online travel service provider Priceline.com, started a new Web-based project, USHomeGuard, that he says will tap existing technology to cheaply remedy security shortcomings. Here's the plan: Heat and motion sensors, along with Webcams, are installed on the perimeters of these facilities. Every five seconds, each camera sends an encrypted photograph to a central image-processing center, which in turn transmits the shots to at least three different freelance ''spotters'' sitting at their home computers. With each frame, the spotters -- who will be paid $8 to $10 per hour -- are asked: ''Do you see a person or vehicle in this image? Yes, No, Not Sure.'' Dummy shots of intruders are randomly inserted in the images to make sure spotters are not asleep at the switch, and the images they see are selected from thousands of different sites around the country, so no one knows for sure where the site that he or she is observing is located.
Let's say a would-be saboteur is scaling a fence in the middle of the night at a reservoir in northern New Jersey. Motion detectors and infrared technology sense the intruder, and software at the data-processing center instantly enhances the image, adding red dots to highlight where heat or motion was detected. A spotter at home in Albany, say, receives the image and, suspecting something is up, immediately alerts the data center, which then automatically sends out up to 20 more photos from cameras around the trespass location to a second group of spotters. If this second group confirms the alert, supervisors at the data centers review all the footage and can demand, through loudspeakers placed on each camera, that the intruder identify himself. If the intruder's answer seems suspect, supervisors telephone local law enforcement. The whole process can take less than 30 seconds.
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