CAM-925
Full of grain
The same city at night, seen from above. An avenue with the street lamps on, palm trees on the left, a planted roundabout, a car stopped in the lane with its brake lights on and another passing it on the right. On the pavement, three people walking; further back, a terrace with people sitting at tables. Over all of it there is a layer of grain that is not out in the street: it is in the picture. It is everywhere, and it eats the detail exactly where the detail matters, in the dark areas: the asphalt, the vegetation, the clothes. IRIS still makes out the large things — there are vehicles, there are people — but it cannot state whether that patch at the back is somebody standing still or noise.
Turn on IRIS Vision
AI-generated image
What IRIS understands
What it recognises in this scene
- picture full of grain
The rule
You decide once. IRIS applies it always.
If
a camera’s noise rises above what that same camera shows on comparable nights and stays there for a good while
Then
- alert maintenance with the camera, the time and the video of those minutes
- place beside it the picture from the same camera at the same hour on earlier nights
- warn that movement alerts from that camera may be coming from the grain while it stays like this
The instruction that set it up«Tell me which cameras have more grain tonight than they had on previous nights with the same light, and show me both pictures together.»
What changes
What changes for whoever answers for the cameras working
At night every camera has some grain, and up to a point that is fine. The problem is when it climbs and nobody notices. Grain moves, and anything that moves looks like something happening: the camera starts sending alerts at three in the morning that are nothing, and within a week the operator has stopped opening them. The camera is still on, still recording, and has stopped being of any use. With IRIS that camera is compared with itself night after night, same light, same hour. If tonight it sees worse than last week, somebody finds out straight away, with both nights’ pictures side by side. And maintenance goes up knowing what for.
What people usually ask
Is grain at night normal, or is it a fault?
A little grain at night is normal: with not much light the sensor amplifies what reaches it, and that amplification shows. What is not normal is a camera having more grain than that same camera had on comparable nights. That is why IRIS does not compare it with a catalogue figure, but with its own history. A jump almost always has a cause: a street lamp that has blown, an illuminator that no longer reaches, or glass that has lost its clarity.
Does noise set off alerts that turn out to be nothing?
Yes, and that is the main reason for keeping an eye on it. Grain moves from frame to frame, and classic motion detection reads that change as something moving. IRIS understands scenes rather than pixels that change, so it holds up a good deal longer, but there is a point beyond which no analytics can be trusted. We would rather say so: past that point, IRIS reports that the camera is in that state instead of carrying on sending alerts as if nothing were wrong.
Can it be fixed by adding more light?
Sometimes. With more light the sensor amplifies less and the grain drops, and on many streets a repaired lamp settles it. But not always: it may be the infrared illuminator, no longer reaching as far as on day one; it may be glass that scatters the little light there is; it may be a sensor at the end of its life. IRIS does not say which of the three. It says this camera sees worse than it used to with the same light, and hands over the picture and the time so somebody can decide.
A different case every time
Watch what happens. Then watch what IRIS does with it.
Not a recorded video and not a drawing: it is a summary of the real tool, with a different case each time round. The whole tool does not fit in a box.
- You ask
- IRIS searches
- It shows you
Next step
What does a shopping centre see beyond the visitor count?
12 cases: 4 raise an alert when something happens and 8 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
What does an airport see before the queue forms?
14 cases: 7 raise an alert when something happens and 7 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
And the best part
No building work, no trenches, no new cabling:the cameras are already up and already looking.
What changes is what happens to the picture. It used to be stored and never seen; now it is understood while it happens, on the same equipment you bought years ago.
Tell us your problem and we will say whether IRIS understands it, or not yet.
We reply the same working day.