Documentation
The College of Charleston has 8 closed-caption television (CCTV) cameras around campus. They are located at the Cistern Yard, Craig Hall Courtyard, Beatty Center atrium, Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts, Rivers Green, School of Sciences and Mathematics Building Courtyard, atop the BellSouth Building, and College Way and Green Way.
Day 1 – Amazon Rekognition video analysis software was setup and trained to recognize two College of Charleston professors faces, clothing, and movement patterns. Recordings were taken of the Cistern Yard camera and the School of Sciences and Mathematics Building Courtyard camera. The subjects were recognized with an 84% probability on facial recognition alone. Folly Beach CCTV camera on the Tides hotel was monitored for surfing purposes.
Day 2 – The two professors were monitored in the two same locations. Subject 1 passed by the Sciences and Mathematics Building Courtyard camera 4 times throughout the day. Patterns of similarities in outfits and movement patterns are being built.
Day 3 – Subject 2 seems to have a routine that is followed. A daily routine pattern is starting to develop. This is normal when conducting surveillance on a subject. It can be shocking to people when they are tracked and see the results, but everyone has their routines.
Day 4 – Both professors were recognized by their outfits. One seems to be wearing a shirt identical to Day 1. Facial Recognition is up to 92% today. Bad weather can have an effect on results. Machine Learning (Rekognition) is gathering the data and automatically providing the individuals without me having to input the description anymore.
Day 5 – Routines have altered slightly as it is a Friday. Both individuals passed by the School of Sciences and Mathematics Building Courtyard camera 4 times though.
Day 6 – Subject 1 showed up to work but only passed by the camera once. It is a Saturday, so results were expected as. Folly Beach Washout Camera was monitored and showed great signs for surfing.
Day 7 – Minimal movement on the cameras as it is Sunday. Higher than expected activity mainly because Finals.
College of Charleston CCTV
Amazon ReKognition
CCTV Traffic Cams Charleston
Change your IP Camera’s password
Reflection
The Internet of Things (IOT) has evolved at an excessively high rate. It is hard for cyber security to keep up the devices that are connected to the internet. Companies are pushing out products so fast without the consumers privacy in mind. I focused on all the closed- caption television (CCTV) cameras within Charleston. Amazon Rekognition (facial recognition software) was incorporated into the study while tracking two College of Charleston professors. Parts of this blog post is not intended to frighten the reader but to bring awareness to the devices and technology available to everyone. CCTV (closed-circuit television) is a TV system in which signals are not publicly distributed but are monitored, primarily for surveillance and security purposes (Rouse). Charleston has CCTV cameras spread throughout the city. They are used for traffic, weather, show off college campus, beach waves, follow action at popular beach side clubs, and viewing nesting seabirds. The monitoring systems are used primarily to provide the public with information.
The College of Charleston has 8 closed-caption television (CCTV) cameras around campus. They are located at the Cistern Yard, Craig Hall Courtyard, Beatty Center atrium, Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts, Rivers Green (Addlestone Library), School of Sciences and Mathematics Building Courtyard, atop the BellSouth Building, and College Way and Green Way. The first webcam was installed on the Marlene & Nathan Addlestone Library in 2007 to capture a time-lapse video of construction on the new School of Sciences and Mathematics building (Menchaca). Since then the cameras have evolved into an attraction to display America’s most beautiful campus. The study was focused primarily on the Cistern Yard and the School of Sciences and Mathematics Building (SSMB) Courtyard. The Cistern Yard camera is located in Randolph Hall looking outward towards The Cistern Yard. The Cistern Yard (with the raised, oval Cistern in the foreground) is the literal and figurative center of campus. Each spring, this is where the College’s commencement ceremonies take place. And, in late May and early June each year, this space serves as a performance venue for jazz artists during the Spoleto Festival USA. During some Spoleto performances, the blinds in this window may be closed (Cofc). The SSMB camera looks north across the courtyard that sits just behind the College’s new science building on Calhoun Street. Students and faculty find respite here during their otherwise busy days (Cofc). The two subjects take multiple trips across the locations during a regular school day.
Ron Menchaca, Senior Director of Communications at the College of Charleston, writes that the CCTV at the college serves five purposes. He writes that the first reason is that they are in fact very popular. Campus webcams have become one of the most popular features on the College’s webpage. Some months, the cams account for nearly 28,000-page views on cofc.edu (Menchaca). Menchaca describes that Parents love the webcams, people reminisce about their college days, technology has evolved, and TV Meteorologists Rob Fowler and Bill Walsh love them (Menchaca). The college is proud of its campus and wants it on display to the world. The data that is collected on the cameras is mostly harmless and provides society with the ability to look into college life.
The two professors that were monitored in the study was easily picked up as they crossed in front of the camera. The data collected from the two popular locations of the professors was put into the video analysis inside Amazon Rekognition. As the video looped through it would give a notification when the subjects passed the camera. The data was not in real time, so it was recorded and feed into the software and trained to look for their faces. The accuracy of the software was the largest surprise as it provided percentages of likeness that it was the individual based off face structure, the way they moved, the outfit they were, and skin color. This data was not a required portion of the project, but it was a fun experiment.
Charleston currently has 74 traffic CCTV cameras, 9 beach cameras, 8 college cams, and a few others spread throughout the city. Those are the publicly known cameras. Surveillance has changed over the years and with new IOT devices being added to the internet each day, security is not the top priority. Websites like www.shodan.io provide all the connected devices that do not have a secure connection, or the owner is still using the default username and password. I conducted a search in Charleston and found a shocking number of web cams with default passwords. I decided to not conduct my research on these individuals as somewhere cameras inside private homes. Technology is evolving rapidly and education on security will always be behind. It is a disturbing fact on how easy it is to look inside someone personal life through a lens.
The outcomes from a few group members were the same within the College of Charleston’s CCTV when it came to monitoring the locations. The Cistern Yard was a primary focus for most as it is a popular location especially this time of year with the Christmas lights. My research was slightly different because I looked at multiple cameras across Charleston but in the end remained my focus on the college. I have conducted surveillance on multiple subjects throughout previous careers. The art of surveillance has changed drastically within the last 10 years. The use of IOT devices has made it possible to find individuals within a crowd, monitor movements, and detect people with facial recognition. Technology will be continuously evolving so it is important for the individual to learn safety precautions when it comes to their devices. The project made myself more aware of what technology is out there and how an individual can be monitored and tracked especially on a college campus. Inserting the data into a facial recognition software was an added bonus but it made the project even more interesting.
Works Cited
College of Charleston. “College Webcams.” http://webcams.cofc.edu/
Iteris. “South Carolina Department of Transportation.” https://www.511sc.org/
Li, Amanda. “Unsecured IP Camera List – Is Your Security Camera Vulnerable to Hackers?”. https://reolink.com/unsecured-ip-camera-list/. October 2018.
Menchaca, Ron. The College Today. “5 Reasons to Smile for Campus Webcams” http://today.cofc.edu/2014/03/21/5-reasons-smile-campus-webcams/. March 2014.
Rouse, Margaret. “CCTV (closed circuit television).” https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/CCTV-closed-circuit-television. April 2012.