A New Take on Home Security

Team Members



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Problem Statement

Homeowners and others are increasingly relying on security devices such as cameras to protect their property. Privacy is becoming increasingly important to people nationwide, yet protection measures are often tacked onto products as an afterthought.

Societal and regulatory pressures provide impetus for a security product with privacy inherent to its design.

Specifications

The system will...

  • detect any entering subject within a radius of 20 feet (6 meters), a field of view of 110° and protract the camera with probability ≥ 80%
  • illuminate the subject with flood lights when PIR sensor detects motion and protract the camera for subjects to know that they are being recorded 100% of the time
  • automatically detect human subjects from 5ft up to 30 ft (9.1 meters) away from the camera (130° shooting angle) with probability ≥ 80%
    • if the subject is not human, camera retracts back down

  • receive notification of detection from user interface with probability ≥ 80% and manually rotate from user interface
  • operate day and night
    • operate in all weather conditions (design goal, not requirement)
  • Threat model: protecting the private data from organizations

Documentation





Play the video to see a demonstration of how PrivACam functions to provide surveillance for the user while also protecting privacy for its videoed subjects.

The slideshow presentation details the inner workings of the project and all of its various subsystems. It features explainations of each component along with close-up visuals of the internals for each major part under the hood.