Fox News Channel
Fox & Friends program
March 14, 2002: 6-7 a.m.

Making a difference in airport security



 
Excerpt:
Fox & Friend's co-host, Steve Doocy:
If you use a digital system, the pictures are super sharp, you can blow them up and things are easier to see, right?

Axis Communication's Fredrik Nilsson: 
Exactly. What this [network camera] brings to the table here is, first of all, the ability to remotely monitor something. So you can--anyone can log into this camera and actually view the pictures . . . . You could be in a police car outside of the building, for example, looking at this image . . . . Secondly, it would be so much quicker to find the specific instance of the recording.

  
Transcript

BRIAN KILMEADE, co-host:

Airport security could be replacing dated surveillance technology with digital cameras, and would it all make a difference?

JULIET HUDDY, co-host:
Here to tell us is the director of business development for Axis Communications--it's a high-tech security developer--Fredrik Nilsson.

Welcome, sir.

Mr. FREDRIK NILSSON (Axis Communications):
Thank you very much.

HUDDY:
All right. So we see you've got a prop with you.

Mr. NILSSON: 
That's right. This is what we call the network camera. And what this brings to the table--it's basically the ability to transfer the images over a computer network.

STEVE DOOCY, co-host:
Mm-hmm. And one of the--you know, a couple of months ago there was a--for instance--I believe it was at San Francisco Airport where they had pictures of a guy who ran through the concourse. They had to close the concourse and thousands of people were out because they had analog cameras and they couldn't really see who the guy was. It was just a bunch of dots. But if you use a digital system the pictures are super sharp, you can blow them up and things are easier to see, right?

Mr. NILSSON:
Exactly. What this brings to the table here is, first of all, the ability to remotely monitor something. So you can--anyone can log into this camera and actually view the pictures.

KILMEADE:
So you could be at home--I could be at home watching this if I had the security pass code.

Mr. NILSSON: 
You could be in a police car outside of the building, for example, looking at this image. And for this specific instance in San Francisco, for example, first of all they would have the image quality so they could recognize the person.

KILMEADE:
Right.

Mr. NILSSON:
Secondly, it would be so much quicker to find the specific instance of the recording...

DOOCY:
Sure.

Mr. NILSSON:
...where this person was running away.

DOOCY:
Sure. Rather than running through the tape, like a DVD you just--

Mr. NILSSON:
Exactly. It's so much quicker. And thirdly, as well, you can easily make sure that anyone in the airport got access to that specific picture, so they can recognize the person and start searching for him.

HUDDY:
Now, are we using these in airports right now or will we be?

Mr. NILSSON:
Some airports are using these products today. For the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, we were installing this together with our partner Honeywell to provide the security for the Sydney airport before the Olympics.

KILMEADE:
Right. How did it go?

Mr. NILSSON:
It went well. No incidents.

KILMEADE:
Did you get anybody? Did you get anyone through this surveillance cameras?

Mr. NILSSON:
Well, obviously, they had a couple of incidents. Not very grave incidents like terrorist attacks or anything like that,...

KILMEADE:
Right.

Mr. NILSSON:
...but they had incidents where they actually caught people with this technology.

DOOCY:
You know Fredrik, we heard stories down in Tampa, Florida, about how in a public square they had these digital cameras and they were using digital cameras in unison with facial recognition software so they could figure out, is that a bad a guy? Is that a bad guy? And there was a cop driving around looking at different people. Can you use this with the facial recognition software?

Mr. NILSSON:
Yeah, easily because this picture is digitized from the camera directly and you can interface this with a system that is sitting in San Diego, for example. If you're running the show in Florida, an instant to transmit all the picture to San Diego and do all the processing and comparing with faces there.

KILMEADE:
We see the famous video of like Mohammed Atta going through the main airport over to Boston Airport.

Mr. NILSSON:
Mm-hmm.

KILMEADE:
How would it have affected that situation?

Mr. NILSSON:
Well, in that specific instance, for ex--first of all, you would have got a higher quality picture of the person. Still, he--we were able to recognize him at that specific instance. But I think the main advantage in this case would be to have the ability to transmit that picture immediately from that airport to Secret Service or the police or somewhere else to immediately look for who is this person, and who is this person connected with.

KILMEADE:
Right.

HUDDY:
We were hearing about, before 9/11, how the airports were kind of--and the airlines were hesitant to invest a lot of money in high-tech security equipment. Has it changed now? Is there a higher demand for your product?

Mr. NILSSON:
There is a higher demand, definitely. And the good thing about our product is you can interface them with existing systems.

KILMEADE:
Right.

Mr. NILSSON:
So existing analog systems can be upgraded with this technology, with the video service that we do as well, and basically turn them into network cameras.

DOOCY:
Right. So, you use the same wires and stuff and you just put new cameras on it. But--obviously, this would work out well, but the--the price could be high, you know, we're strapped right now. How much would something like this cost? How much does this camera cost?

Mr. NILSSON:
This product here is approximately $1,000.

DOOCY:
And the average airport would need how many of these?

Mr. NILSSON:
The average airport, I guess, has 200 of these cameras.

DOOCY:
OK.

Mr. NILSSON:
And if looking at some of the couple of installs we've had over the last couple of months, we had, for example, the Salt Lake Media Center--

DOOCY:
Right.

Mr. NILSSON:
The Media Center for the Salt Lake [Winter Olympics].

DOOCY:
You had it set up there?

Mr. NILSSON:
Yeah. They had some 40 cameras--analog cameras installed already and they didn't want to scrap those because they--it was a pretty big investment.

DOOCY:
Right.

Mr. NILSSON:
So they bought a couple of video servers, digitized the pictures from those and they bought a couple of cameras to--for some new installs, and they actually saved a lot of money compared to using other technology for being able to get these remote accessibility and remote storage of the images.

KILMEADE:
Right, the key to me, as I hear you unfold, and read about it, is for the FBI, the CIA, for the--anyone to plug into this. For example, what good is Lo Jack if the police don't have a transmitter to receive it. So, have you talked to the FBI, the CIA, any type of government agency about getting on board, so maybe--maybe they're in D.C. but they'll be able to look at the JFK Airport and go, `That's the guy.'

Mr. NILSSON:
Exactly. And, for example, there is one install in Washington where the Washington police--DC are using our products to surveil the downtown area of Washington. So, yeah, we definitely have been in discussion with a lot of those people.

DOOCY:
OK. Director of business development at Axis Communications.