An analysis of roughly 4,400 IP cameras in the U.S. using custom http servers found that just over 51 percent of them are infected by one of four Internet of Things botnet malware families, according to new research.
The majority of these 3,675 compromised cameras, or approximately 64.1 percent, were infected by the IoT botnet Persirai, Trend Micro reported in a blog post on Thursday. Discovered earlier this year, Persirai relies on exploited vulnerabilities to steal credentials and attack other devices.
The remaining affected cameras were found infected by the IoT botnets Mirai (about 27.7 percent), DvrHelper (about 6.8 percent), and TheMoon (about 1.4 percent), the blog post continues. Trend Micro used the Shodan search engine as well as its own research to amass its study sample, though it is not currently clear how recently this analysis took place. (SC Media has contacted Trend Micro for an answer.)
Mirai appears to be spreading fast. A security researcher put online six virtual machines designed to look like ADSL routers running Linux operating systems just like the ones targeted by Mirai—in other words, a set of honeypots.
It took only an average of 15 minutes for these to get hit with Mirai malware, the researcher, who asked to be referred to as "Jack B." to protect his real identity, told me in an online chat. (If you didn't just say "holy shit," you probably should have.)
FakeApp can easily create robust, diverse datasets of thousands of images in minutes from both image sets and videos.
Screenshots
Get Datasets
Train AIs
Create Faceswaps
FakeApp makes it easy to observe the progress of trained AIs in real time by posting frequent loss values and training previews.
FakeApp reduces the task of converting the face in a video to a single button process by automatically splitting, converting, and stitching video frames.
FakeApp Makes Faceswaps Easy
FakeApp was designed to make the process of creating realistic faceswaps with deep learning as smooth, simple, and quick as possible. It supports all three steps of the basic faceswap workflow—creating datasets, training AI, and converting videos. Here is a brief video tutorial made by a FakeApp user and some screenshots.
The "Miniatur Wunderland" exhibition, located in Hamburg, Germany, is the world's largest model railway.
To bring new perspective to the massive model railway, Google last year built a miniature version of its Street View car to capture footage within the Miniatur Wunderland with an array of tiny mounted cameras. You can actually see all the various worlds within the Miniatur Wunderland on Google Street View.
HD Analog technology offers a compelling alternative to traditional analog and IP surveillance options. HD Analog video security solutions deliver megapixel resolution video over coaxial cabling (HD over coax), and are far less complex to install and operate compared to IP.
Since its introduction, several HD Analog formats have emerged, including: HD-SDI, AHD, HD-CVI and HD-TVI. While all HD Analog options offer the same basic benefits compared to analog or IP, each format features a unique set of capabilities and compatibilities.
At this time, there is no “standard” format – or established “winner” – in the HD Analog space. But, it is clear that certain formats are better positioned to succeed – offering clear competitive advantages that translate to significant and measurable benefits for the end user.
How HD Analog Formats Compare
Technology
HD-CVI
AHD
HD-SDI
HD-TVI
Max Resolution (Pixels)
1080p
1920 x 1080 px
1080p
1920 x 1080 px
1080p
1920 x 1080 px
1080p
1920 x 1080 px
Video Output Quality (What you see)
Very good in daylight
Images not as crisp in low light conditions
Good
Images not
as crisp
Colors not as accurate
Very Good
Sharp images up to 1080p
True colors
Very Good
Sharp images up to 1080p
True colors
Transmission
Distance
Coaxial Cable (RG59)
1600’ (720p) 1300’ (1080p)
1600’
492’
1600’
Twisted Pair (CAT5)
650’
492’
350’
(digital converter
required)
700’
DVR Input
Compatibility
Analog
All analog cameras, limited channels, limited configurations
All analog cameras, limited channels, limited configurations
All analog cameras, on any channel, in any configuration
HD Analog
Like-branded HD-CVI cameras, on any channel, in any configuration
Like-branded AHD cameras, on any channel, in any configuration
Like-branded HD-SDI cameras, on any channel, in any configuration
Any HD-TVI camera, on any channel, in any configuration
IP
Supported IP cameras, on select channels, in select configurations
N/A
N/A
Supported IP cameras, on 2 channels, in any configuration
DVR Hybrid Capabilities
Limited
configurability
Limited
configurability
Limited
configurability
Yes, unlimited configurability
Format Compatibility
Proprietary technology, only produced by 1 manufacturer, Dahua - out of China
Open
standard, limited manufacturers
Open
standard, multiple manufacturers - are currently exiting the market as alternative HD formats outpace SDI
Open standard, over 100 manufacturer's have launched or are developing solutions using TVI technology
HD-SDI
HD-SDI is a digital format over coax usually. It's used in professional Television studios and tends to be very expensive.
HD-TVI
HD-TVI stands for High Definition Transport Video Interface.
The TVI standard was developed by a company named Techpoint and released in 2014 and adopted by many manufacturers, most notably Hikvision – Dahua’s primary competitor. Hikvision is the largest manufacturer of HD-TVI in the world. LTS Security is the biggest reseller of their products.
HD-CVI
High Definition Composite Video Interface (HDCVI) was developed by Dahua in 2012 and began to saw wide-release in 2014.
The PTZ cameras of the HDCVI type are capable of achieving that RS485 data connection without the use of an extra cable. It's all done right through the same coax cable that's transmitting video.
HD-CVI technology can at times be found masked by behind other names like HD-AVS or HD-MPX.
HD-AHD
AHD (Analog High Definition) developed by NextChip, a Korean manufacturer. AHD is interesting because most of its distribution has come in the form of no name brands. However, it was recently adopted by Samsung, making the technology considerably more legitimate as far as mainstream markets and long-term sustainability go. HD-AHD cameras are very cheap and are intended to occupy the low-end market.
A flick (frame-tick) is a very small unit of time. It is 1/705600000 of a second, exactly.
1 flick = 1/705600000 second
Here’s a list of numbers into which 1/706,600,000 divides evenly: 8, 16, 22.05, 24, 25, 30, 32, 44.1, 48, 50, 60, 90, 100, 120.
Motivation
When working creating visual effects for film, television, and other media, it is common to run simulations or other time-integrating processes which subdivide a single frame of time into a fixed, integer number of subdivisions. It is handy to be able to accumulate these subdivisions to create exact 1-frame and 1-second intervals, for a variety of reasons.
Knowing that you should never, ever use floating point representations for accumulated, simulated time (lest your temporal accuracy degrade over time), the std::chrono time tools in C++ are ideal. However, the highest usable resolution, nanoseconds, doesn't evenly divide common film & media framerates. This was the genesis of this unit.
Is ATSC 3.0 really a Trojan Horse for next-generation AV and Collaboration?
You may have seen the latest headline coming out of CES in Las Vegas last week about the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) release of ATSC 3.0, or more accurately stated the standards suite of protocols. How does this release impact the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association (AVIXA) members and the design of AV systems in general?
Gigabit Multimedia Serial Link (GMSL) serializer and deserializer (SerDes)
Right now this is a sort of standard built around Maxim's chips.
It seems to be used almost exclusively in the self driving car / automotive industry.
power and data is carried over a single Coax cable to a GMSL camera.
Maxim Integrated’s MAX9272A and MAX9275 gigabit multimedia serial link (GMSL) serializers and deserializers (SerDes) used in the Surround View Kit are designed primarily for automotive video applications such as ADAS & Infotainment. Maxim’s GMSL SerDes technology provides a compression-free alternative to Ethernet, delivering 10x faster data rates, 50% lower cabling costs, and better EMC. The ADAS Starter Kit comes with coax cables having a length of 20cm, but they can be exchanged to longer ones as Maxim's GMSL chipsets drive 15 meters of coax or shielded twisted-pair (STP) cabling, thereby providing the margin required for robust and versatile designs
Ultra-high speed compression and life-like viewing experience starts here. JPEG2000 Codec for GPU and CPU. Comprimato's JPEG2000 GPU Codec toolkit helps Media & Entertainment and Geospatial Imaging technology companies keep it real and with more accurate decision-making power.
Altspace tweeted the unexpected news: ”It is with tremendously heavy hearts that we must let you know that we are closing down AltspaceVR very soon.” The site had been unable to close its latest round of funding, it elaborated in a blog post, and will be shutting down next week.
A Monocentric is an achromatic triplet lens with two pieces of crown glass cemented on both sides of a flint glass element. The elements are thick, strongly curved, and their surfaces have a common center giving it the name "monocentric". It was invented by Hugo Adolf Steinheil around 1883. This design, like the solid eyepiece designs of Robert Tolles, Charles S. Hastings, and E. Wilfred Taylor, is free from ghost reflections and gives a bright contrast image, a desirable feature when it was invented (before anti-reflective coatings).
A Wide-Field-of-View Monocentric Light Field Camera Donald G. Dansereau, Glenn Schuster , Joseph Ford , and Gordon Wetzstein Stanford University, Department of Electrical Engineering
Abstract
Light field (LF) capture and processing are important
in an expanding range of computer vision applications, offering
rich textural and depth information and simplification
of conventionally complex tasks. Although LF cameras
are commercially available, no existing device offers
wide field-of-view (FOV) imaging. This is due in part to
the limitations of fisheye lenses, for which a fundamentally
constrained entrance pupil diameter severely limits depth
sensitivity. In this work we describe a novel, compact optical
design that couples a monocentric lens with multiple
sensors using microlens arrays, allowing LF capture with
an unprecedented FOV. Leveraging capabilities of the LF
representation, we propose a novel method for efficiently
coupling the spherical lens and planar sensors, replacing
expensive and bulky fiber bundles. We construct a single sensor
LF camera prototype, rotating the sensor relative
to a fixed main lens to emulate a wide-FOV multi-sensor
scenario. Finally, we describe a processing tool chain, including
a convenient spherical LF parameterization, and
demonstrate depth estimation and post-capture refocus for
indoor and outdoor panoramas with 15 × 15 × 1600 × 200
pixels (72 MPix) and a 138° FOV.
---------
Designing a 4D camera for robots
Stanford engineers have developed a 4D camera with an extra-wide field of view. They believe this camera can be better than current options for close-up robotic vision and augmented reality.
Stanford has created a 4D camera that can capture 140 degrees of information. The new technology would be the perfect addition to robots and autonomous vehicles. The 4D camera relies on light field photography which allows it to gather such a wide degree of information.
Light field camera, or standard plenoptic camera, works by capturing information about the light field emanating from the scene. It measures the intensity of the light in the scene and also the direction that the light rays travel. Traditional photography only captures the light intensity.
The researchers proudly call their design to be the “first-ever single-lens, wide field of view, light field camera.” The camera uses the information it has gathered about the light at the scene in combination with the 2D image to create the 4D image.
This means the photo can be refocused after the image has been captured. The researchers cleverly use the analogy of the difference between looking out a window and through a peephole to describe the difference between the traditional photography and the new technology. They say, ““A 2D photo is like a peephole because you can’t move your head around to gain more information about depth, translucency or light scattering’. Looking through a window, you can move and, as a result, identify features like shape, transparency and shininess.”
The 4D camera’s unique qualities make it perfect for use with robots. For instance, images captured by a search and rescue robot could be zoomed in and refocused to provide important information to base control. The imagery produced by the 4D camera could also have application in augmented reality as the information rich images could help with better quality rendering.
The 4D camera’s unique qualities make it perfect for use with robots. For instance, images captured by a search and rescue robot could be zoomed in and refocused to provide important information to base control. The imagery produced by the 4D camera could also have application in augmented reality as the information rich images could help with better quality rendering.
The 4D camera is still at a proof-of-concept stage, and too big for any of the future possible applications. But now the technology is at a working stage, smaller and lighter versions can be developed. The researchers explain the motivation for creating a camera specifically for robots. Donald Dansereau, a postdoctoral fellow in electrical engineering explains, “We want to consider what would be the right camera for a robot that drives or delivers packages by air. We’re great at making cameras for humans but do robots need to see the way humans do? Probably not.”
The research will be presented at the computer vision conference, CVPR 2017 on July 23.
First images from the world's only single-lens wide-FOV light field camera.
From CVPR 2017 paper "A Wide-Field-of-View Monocentric Light Field Camera", http://dgd.vision/Projects/LFMonocentric/ This parallax pan scrolls through a 138-degree, 72-MPix light field captured using our optical prototype. Shifting the virtual camera position over a circular trajectory during the pan reveals the parallax information captured by the LF.
There is no post-processing or alignment between fields, this is the raw light field as measured by the camera.
Other related work:
Integrated RF agile transceivers are not only widely employed in software-defined radio (SDR)1 architectures in cellular telephone base stations, such as multiservice distributed access system (MDAS) and small cell, but also for wireless HD video transmission for industrial, commercial, and military applications, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This article will examine a wideband wireless video signal chain implementation using the AD9361/AD93642,3 integrated transceiver ICs, the amount of data transmitted, the corresponding RF occupied signal bandwidth, the transmission distance, and the transmitter’s power. It will also describe the implementation of the PHY layer of OFDM and present hopping frequency time test results to avoid RF interference. Finally, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages between Wi-Fi and the RF agile transceiver in wideband wireless applications.
Posted by EditorDavid from the remainder-bin dept.
Baron_Yam shared an article from Science Daily: Researchers from MIT and the Technical University of Munich have developed a new technique that could lead to cameras that can handle light of any intensity, and audio that doesn't skip or pop. Virtually any modern information-capture device -- such as a camera, audio recorder, or telephone -- has an analog-to-digital converter in it, a circuit that converts the fluctuating voltages of analog signals into strings of ones and zeroes. Almost all commercial analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), however, have voltage limits. If an incoming signal exceeds that limit, the ADC either cuts it off or flatlines at the maximum voltage. This phenomenon is familiar as the pops and skips of a "clipped" audio signal or as "saturation" in digital images -- when, for instance, a sky that looks blue to the naked eye shows up on-camera as a sheet of white.
Last week, at the International Conference on Sampling Theory and Applications, researchers from MIT and the Technical University of Munich presented a technique that they call unlimited sampling, which can accurately digitize signals whose voltage peaks are far beyond an ADC's voltage limit. The consequence could be cameras that capture all the gradations of color visible to the human eye, audio that doesn't skip, and medical and environmental sensors that can handle both long periods of low activity and the sudden signal spikes that are often the events of interest. One of the paper's author's explains that "The idea is very simple. If you have a number that is too big to store in your computer memory, you can take the modulo of the number."
