| Windows CE drives mobile video surveillance system |
a case study by Intrinsyc and Microsoft (Oct. 9, 2003)
Overview
Safety Vision, a leading designer, manufacturer, and distributor of mobile video surveillance systems, wanted to upgrade its RoadRecorder Digital Recording Device to run on a standardized operating system that would support broader functionality and quicker development than with a proprietary system.
The company chose the Microsoft Windows CE operating system version 3.0 for its broad support for networking and communications protocols and off-the-shelf peripherals, as well as for its mature development tools. Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Intrinsyc Software, developed the motherboard for the RoadRecorder from its own reference design, created with the Platform Builder development tool in Windows CE. Using the pretested functionality provided by the reference design, Intrinsyc was able to deliver the RoadRecorder motherboard hardware and software design in just five months.
Situation
 The next time you see a security camera on a transit bus, subway, or school bus, you may be looking into the lens of a Safety Vision RoadRecorder system. Safety Vision, the largest distributor of mobile video and surveillance equipment in North America, designs, manufactures, markets, and services systems for rear vision and on-board video surveillance systems. The company’s offerings include digital and analog video recorders, cameras, monitors, microphones, switchers, thermal imagers, and accessories.
 Having introduced the RoadRecorder 5000, which ran on proprietary software, Safety Vision decided that it wanted to expand the RoadRecorder capabilities to include multitasking, real-time data streaming, support for networking, and a range of communications interfaces and peripherals such as flash memory and a large-capacity hard disk.
The company decided that rather than develop its own proprietary embedded software to support those new features, it would be quicker and more cost-effective to license an established operating system. In addition to the expanded functionality, the operating system that Safety Vision was looking for needed to offer maximum stability and require little maintenance because surveillance systems can run for days, weeks, or months without user interaction.
Safety Vision also wanted a system that was supported by mature development tools. "We didn’t want something that required us to open a text pad and type in it, then have to open another compiler, and then try to go track down the bug; we needed something that was an all-in-one system," says Adam Grant, Safety Vision Software Engineer.
The company decided on Microsoft Windows CE version 3.0 because the operating system met all the criteria. "For us, really the only other option might have been Linux," says Leonard Urbanovsky, Safety Vision Design Engineer. "We’re cost-sensitive, so we can’t spend a whole lot of money on various development tools and operating system licenses for each system. We also wanted something proven, that has mature development tools. Windows CE was really the only solution that met all those requirements."
Safety Vision turned to Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Intrinsyc Software International, Inc., to design the motherboard and integrate Windows CE with the hardware.
Solution
The Safety Vision RoadRecorder mobile digital recording device monitors and provides video surveillance of transit buses, railcars, shuttle buses, armored vehicles, and law enforcement vehicles. The system records more than 300 hours of video from up to 10 surveillance cameras onto a hard disk. That digital data is then downloaded to a storage system when the vehicle returns to its home base.
The Windows CE–based RoadRecorder features an Intel StrongARM SA1110 CPU, 64MB of SDRAM, and a 32MB Intel StrataFlash memory card. The operating system configuration includes the Windows TCP/IP stack, the IrDA stack for serial communications, null video and keyboard drivers, and remote display functionality. The entire system is encased in a reinforced box to protect it from moisture, dust, and vibration.
In building the RoadRecorder, Safety Vision needed a partner with whom it could work closely and who knew how to use Windows CE capabilities to their best advantage.
"We needed a highly skilled partner to design the main board and integrate the operating system and software components with our device hardware," says Urbanovsky. "We turned to Intrinsyc because of their extensive Windows CE expertise and proven ability to deliver a cost-effective solution on time."
Intrinsyc is a global leader in helping companies engineer embedded hardware and software solutions for a range of intelligent devices and has created more than 150 Windows CE–based implementations and hardware designs. Intrinsyc had already created reference designs for a variety of components such as CPUs, flash memory, RAM, and peripherals, using the Platform Builder development tool, which is included in Windows CE 3.0.
"Our reference designs ensure that the core hardware and software already work seamlessly together so that we have an excellent starting point on which to customize our client’s system," says Greg Chan, Intrinsyc Software Engineer.
The company designed the RoadRecorder motherboard based on its reference design for the StrongARM CPU. Using the tried and tested reference design helped reduce development time and risk.
The RoadRecorder unit also features IrDA and 100Base-T Ethernet ports, PCMCIA, a real-time clock, and a standard ATA 60-GB or larger hard disk. Intrinsyc engineers wrote new drivers to support the IDE hard disk and to enhance the real-time clock.
The entire development process for the motherboard took just five months. "That’s about half the time it would have taken without our reference designs and our experience with building Windows CE–based solutions," says Chan.
Benefits
The rich functionality in Windows CE supports a range of networking and communications protocols and peripherals. This broad support gives Safety Vision the flexibility to quickly add capabilities to its RoadRecorder system to meet new market demands. Also, the robust development tools, included with Windows CE, reduced development time.
Cost-Efficient Innovation
Because Windows CE supports such a broad group of networking and communications protocols and peripherals, it will make it possible for Safety Vision to add features to its systems with very little development effort.
"Windows CE allows us to add a variety of peripherals to enhance the unit without having to devote a large number of development hours to each device," says Grant. "With Windows CE, we can upgrade the RoadRecorder to support those technologies with minimal effort."
Basing the RoadRecorder on Windows CE also makes it possible for Safety Vision to draw from a large pool of qualified development resources.
Fast Development
The new Platform Wizard included in the Windows CE Platform Builder helped Intrinsyc develop its reference designs quickly by minimizing debugging time and errors. Using one of its pretested reference designs enabled Intrinsyc to produce the completed RoadRecorder motherboard in just five months. "Basing the design on our reference platform shortens the development cycle and lessens the risk," Chan says. "We can do less testing on routine components of the design because those components have already been tested and verified. This gives us time to add features and still deliver fast results."
In addition, Intrinsyc is able to use the integrated host-to-target connectivity in Windows CE to maintain greater control of the target device during debugging and to save development time.
Support for New Market Segments
As security requirements continue to grow, Urbanovsky sees the rich functionality in Windows CE as an important tool in Safety Vision’s ability to expand into new markets. "We get more and more requests for networking, especially from new market segments," Urbanovsky says. "With the network support built into Windows CE, we can get into those markets now."
Copyright © 2003 Microsoft Corp. and Intrinsyc Software International Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduced by WindowsForDevices.com with permission.
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