Video motion detection systems: a review for the nineties

Video motion detection systems (VMDs) have been available for many years. The development of microprocessors has enabled improvements to be made, particularly during the early 1980s, to the performance of these systems. Some further advances have been made in the 1990s. Most recently, relatively inexpensive computer based systems incorporating neural networks, have been employed for Intelligent Scene Monitoring (ISM). ISM identifies user defined events while ignoring other activity in the scene. It adapts to changing backgrounds and can be straightforward to set up and operate. Another recent innovation has used the geometry of three-dimensional space rather than the two dimensions of a single closed circuit television (CCTV) image. This is achieved by analyzing the overlap of television images, from more than one TV camera. This paper reviews the development of VMD, describes methods of operation and presents performance information on some recently developed systems