Building 305 in M-Area is a multipurpose laboratory. It has been chosen as a test area for the remote video monitoring system developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory.  This system is known as NTVision.  The video monitoring system being tested here could be used in many types of nuclear facilities - reactors, material storage areas, or waste management - to show that operations appear to be normal, and hence, are probably safe.  In designing a video-based transparency system consideration must be given to ensuring that sensitive security information is not revealed in the video frame.  Also, explanatory information should tell the viewer what is in the field of view. That is, the viewer needs to know what "normal" is in order to gain an understanding that the facility is operating normally and safely.

The video system can be combined with other sensors to record images based on doors opening, radiation or temperature levels changing, or a variety of other circumstances.  For more information, explore other options in the System Description sections of this web site.

To see video images of interior of Building 305 click here.

Instructions for using the NTVision site.

In order to appreciate the information available at the Los Alamos NTVision web site, you may wish to print the following hints.
 

1.	The first page is the NTVision home page on the Los Alamos National Laboratory server. The scenic view is Northern New Mexico near the Laboratory. Click on "Event Calendar" in the upper left to proceed.
2.	A calender month box will come up in the lower left corner. Select any of the blue highlighted days; those are days on which people entered the laboratory and caused the camera to record images.  December 14, 1998 is a good example.
3.	A daily event summary box will come up.  For different events the camera took a different number of images.  The images start when a person enters into a selected part of the camera field of view and images continue until the person leaves the field of view entirely, or the camera reaches a maximum of 60 images. Click on one of the times; the event at 15:29:13 is a good example.
4.	Four video frames will appear.  A particular strength of the NTVision system is that it operates in a "difference image" mode: The upper left image is from the camera memory before the sequence was triggered. The upper right captures a person moving an object on top of the cabinet. Reaching into this zone of the camera field of view triggers the sequence of images to follow.  The camera only stores the difference in each frame from the initial reference image. This allows a sequence to be recorded with minimal memory requirements. The lower right image shows the last frame taken, just after the person left the field of view of the camera. In the Dec. 14, 15:29:13 case, the person left after 26 frames were captured. The final frame in the lower left shows the difference between the reference image and the final image.  The few pixels that show are an indication of a change of position of an object - a difference between the reference and the final images.
5.	You can see all of the frames by clicking on the number of frames, in this case 26.  (WARNING: This may upset your computer - save and close all open files before trying this step!)  First the system will transfer the frames to your computer, one-by-one. Then, it will play the sequence in a repeating loop.
6.	To end NTVision click on any of the active areas in the far left frame.  This will return you from the SRS to the Asia-Pacific Nuclear Transparency site.

 

Click here to view screen capture of April 14th, 1999 NTVision demonstration.