Tactical infrastructure such as fencing, roads, and lighting is critical to securing a nation's border. But it alone is not enough to prevent the unlawful movement of people and contraband into a country.

"Technology is that the primary driver of all land, maritime, and air domain awareness - This may become solely additional apparent as [U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)] faces future threats," per testimony from CBP officers at a Senate hearing on Office of Homeland Security in 2015.

And machine vision's fingerprints are all over that technology. "The information obtained from fixed and mobile surveillance systems, ground sensors, imaging systems, and other advanced technologies enhances situational awareness and better enables CBP to detect, identify, monitor, and appropriately respond to threats in the nation's border regions," the testimony states.

At the U.S.-Mexico border within the state of Arizona, for instance, Integrated mounted Tower (IFT) systems persistently notice and track alleged "items of interest." Designed to resist its harsh desert surroundings, IFT is supplied with measuring instrument, industrial off-the-peg daylight cameras and thermal imaging sensors, and microwave transmitters that send information to frame agents at the Nogales station for analysis and decision-making.

On all three fronts of land, maritime, and aerial surveillance, machine vision companies are providing imaging systems - and, more frequently, analysis of the generated data - that meet government agencies' objectives of flexibility, cost effectiveness, and easy deployment in border security applications.

Managing Diverse Conditions

The perennial problem with vision systems used in border surveillance applications is managing the diversity of an outdoor environment with its fluctuating lighting and weather conditions, as well as varied terrain. Despite the challenges, "there are places where you can implement controls to improve upon the intelligence of the system," says Dr. Rex Lee, president and CEO of Pyramid Imaging (Tampa, Florida). He points to customers who monitor trains along the southern border of the U.S. for illegal passengers.

"Those trains ought to go below a trellis, which may be equipped with the acceptable sensors and lighting to assist examine the trains," Dr. Lee says. Government agencies tasked with border security use infrared cameras to notice targets at midnight and in different low-light conditions, however thermal imaging has its limits, too. "Infrared cameras work rather well once you will use them in high-contrast conditions," Dr. Lee says. "But if you're attempting to choose up somebody's at ninety eight.6°F on a desert floor that's 100°F, the desert is emitting radiation at nearly constant a part of the spectrum. therefore customers believe different components of the spectrum like shortwave infrared (SWIR) to do to catch the distinction."

Infrared imaging works well in monitoring motorized watercraft since the boat's engine has a thermal signature. "What's nice about water is that it's relatively uniform and it's easy to 'wash out' that background and see anomalies," Dr. Lee says.

But the problem is that the oceans present a vast amount of area to cover. Says Dr. Lee, "To see all of it is a compromise between having a whole bunch of systems monitoring the water or systems that are high in the sky, in which case you have the problem of seeing something really tiny in a very large overall view."

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