The development and application of an `automated light survey´ mapping system

Security lighting is an integral and expensive component in the overall security envelope surrounding high risk facilities. This is obviously the case in and around correctional prison facilities. Because of the threat level at our prison facilities from both inside and outside forces, we have been very concerned with maintaining appropriate levels of security lighting in order to insure maximum protection of our secure perimeters. In order to accomplish this, the Federal Bureau of Prisons arranged for the development of a new integrated system to map the light levels at a facility using a mobile back-pack system that automatically collects and integrates light levels with positional data received from the satellite based Global Positioning System (GPS). After several steps of data manipulation, the final report is a multi-colored map of the facility with the varying levels of light graphically displayed as shaded color contour lines throughout the facility