IP camera

An Internet protocol camera, or IP camera, is a type of digital video camera commonly employed for surveillance, and which unlike analogclosed circuit television (CCTV) cameras can send and receive data via a computer network and the Internet.

There are two kinds of IP cameras:

• Centralized IP cameras, which require a central network video recorder (NVR) to handle the recording, video and alarm management.
• Decentralized IP cameras, which have NVR functionality built-in and can thus record directly to any type of digital storage media, such as flash drives, hard disk drives or network attached storage.

History

The first centralized IP camera was released in 1996 by Axis Communications. It used a custom web server internal to the camera. In late 1999, the company started using embedded Linux to operate its cameras. Axis also released documentation for its low-level API called "VAPIX", which builds on the open standards of HTTP and real time streaming protocol (RTSP). This open architecture was intended to encourage third-party software manufacturers to develop compatible management and recording software.

The first decentralized IP camera was released in 1999 by Mobotix. The camera's Linux system contains video, alarm and recording management functionality, thus the camera system does not require licensed video management software to manage the recording, event and video management.

Megapixel IP cameras are available at resolutions of from one to 11 megapixels.

Standards

Analog closed circuit television uses established CCTV and broadcast television formats (e.g. Common intermediate format (CIF), NTSC, PAL, and SECAM). Generally speaking, each make of IP camera will differ in terms of its specific features and functions, video encoding (compression) schemes, supported network protocols, and the API to be used by video management software.

In order to address issues of standardization of IP video surveillance, two industry groups were formed in 2008. The Open Network Video Interface Forum (ONVIF)and the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA). While the PSIA was founded by 20 member companies including Honeywell, GE Security and Cisco, and ONVIF was founded by Axis, Bosch and Sony, each group now has numerous members. As of January 2009, each group had released version 1.0 of their specification.

See also

• Closed-circuit television camera

External Links

• [Wireless IP security cameras 101] Wireless IP security cameras 101 written Published by articles base via 2mcctv.com articles, 2010