A hybrid architecture design for security monitoring via the Internet

We present the development of a Web‐based remote‐monitoring system as an attractive alternative to the manual task of security surveillance. The system has built‐in human motion analysis that can alert the security personnel when suspicious activities are detected at the monitored sites. In this paper, our focus is on the architectural design of such a system. We discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of three different architectural approaches: centralized, distributed and hybrid, and conclude that a hybrid approach is most appropriate. Our Web‐based system has been implemented for monitoring elevators (lifts) within a university environment. Objective and subjective tests have validated the effectiveness of our system. The Web‐based implementation enhances ease of operation and allows users to connect to the system via a Web browser.