Transparent Surveillance
South Australia’s Police and Country Fire Services are jointly considering a plan to share advanced aerial surveillance technology with capabilities of the kind that are now being promoted as high-value assets for numerous government agencies.
Three separate general aviation aircraft types were on display at the Avalon Airshow with airborne sensor equipment and data linking systems able to acquire images in almost any conditions, day or night and even through fog or smoke haze, and transmit the data in real time via satellite to ground stations operated by police, fire authorities or other government agencies.
The systems provided by US manufacturer Wescam come from the spectrum of defence development and operation, the three pillars of which are stabilisation, resolution and magnification, along with autofocus technology to keep captured images identifiable.
High resolution cameras using three to seven sensor capabilities are stabilised by an “inertial measurement unit” with capabilities that improve on earlier gyroscopic systems and can keep sensors trained on an identified vehicle or vessel even if the aircraft changes course or altitude. Even if a vehicle disappears into a tunnel, the system has the capability to seek, recognise and re-acquire it when it emerges. Typically the system can keep a camera focused with an image of such high definition that number plates can easily be read, it can document a vehicle’s speed, and images acquired from 3,000’ on a dark night are of such quality that a face can be recognised.
These capabilities can provide far more precise information on issues such as fire front locations and their movement, intensity and behaviour to fire controllers, police and communities under threat; with huge potential to save the lives of firefighters and residents. Data can also be transmitted to remote hand-held devices so that officers in the field have the most precise information on fire or other emergency situations.
Airflite National Marketing Manager Michael Hall says state governments are now showing increasing interest in systems that could be deployed in bush fire situations, and other functions including police work, search and rescue, fisheries surveillance, marine pollution control, crop management and crowd or traffic control.
“If one government department owns such an asset and other government agencies bid for time allocation so that overheads are shared, this can be a very economical way to meet their needs,” says Mr Hall.
The surveillance systems use multiple camera capabilities either as a sole source or by blending them together to enhance images, which they can transmit in real time to a control centre, he says:
“It’s needed in other states too. Hand-held GPSs and mobile phones are a very inefficient use of resources when you have access to equipment like this, which they’ve got to have if they need to be able to see fire trucks through smoke and haze or to get people out of danger by giving timely warnings on when to evacuate.
“The authorities could have had this equipment two years ago; they need it and it’s been available, but what we have now is state of the art. The [Victorian] Department of Sustainability & Environment uses a huge fleet of some 35 aircraft, and they can be far more efficiently deployed using the data that comes from these systems.”
Airflite Flight Operations Manager Charles Gunter said the entire integrated systems installation aboard a Vulcanair P68C light twin-engined aircraft was integrated from off-the-shelf hardware, designed and installed in nine working days which he believes is a record:
“We’ve integrated Wescam’s MX-15HDi cameras, the first high-definition search camera in Australia. We’ve also fitted it with the MX Pod which has a transmission antenna array that can beam a signal from aircraft to ground up to a range of about 150 km, and the aircraft can also be fitted with satellite data linking for global image transmission.”
The P68 is capable of “loitering” at low speed at 10,000’ for up to nine hours, can detect fire outbreaks in real time, and can even identify the make and model of a car leaving the scene of a new fire. If so directed the aircraft would also be positioned to track and identify the vehicle. Wescam also has a new technology called ELAPS, which removes haze and all but the heaviest smoke. Infrared illuminators can actually illuminate targets at night, and can detect (for example) a lost child in a forest and direct rescue teams to the location.
This is news of technology unimaginable just a few years ago. I applaud those responsible and believe that the information gathered should be shared, but in a regulated manner for police and fire services.
We should ensure that we do not lose privacy, that government makes rules for the use of these new capabilities. We see daily the imposition of over-bearing bureaucracy and how they misuse power. See the ‘Dad’s Army’ article, and then ask yourself how would you like any, or every, commonwealth, state or local government department looking at your every move on a twenty-four hour basis? Free people could not be free if subject to total surveillance, and it would appear that we are approaching this possibility.