IPNetCam : Intelligent Surveillance Camera

The Product:
IPNetCam, a leap ahead in the future of surveillance systems, is a surveillance camera which can recognize & track objects just as human brain can, thus eliminating the human factor from the security & surveillance domain.  The camera is powered by Video Analytics algorithms from ObjectVideo™ who is a leading provider of algorithms & software’s for Surveillance.  The camera’s video processing power comes from TI’s cutting edge DaVinci™ technology based digital signal processor DM6446. 

The camera sends out Web page alerts and email alerts as soon as some human / vehicle appears / disappears / crosses a virtual line drawn on the camera’s view.  Also, the camera can store scheduled video on a network server with a choice of two codec’s – MPEG4 & H.264, different resolutions viz. D1, VGA, CIF, QCIF and a range of bit-rates starting from 256Kbps to 7Mbps, thus making it suitable to all types of intra and inter networks.  The CODEC & Resolution choices are also available for Live Video Streaming

The Challenge:
The biggest challenge we faced was to test it in a real time environment, taking into consideration the extreme climatic conditions it would be used in. Features like correct identification of a vehicle/person/object needed to be tested for all varied conditions and probabilities without missing a single event..

Why ennovate:
ennovate has the experience of having tested software/applications in variety of domains ranging from Web-based and desktop Applications to Embedded Systems and has proved it’s proficiency in each of the fields of applications.  We have a dedicated team of QA/Test engineers who have years of experience in delivering quality as per the standards required by the client. Identification of Strategy of testing to helping the client in identifying the optimum Test setup required to test an Application as per the requirements has been one of our key abilities. Automation of test cases is also a part of the expertise of ennovate engineers, which has helped reduce time to test an application/product.

The Solution:
1. Requirement refinement & enhancements
Requirement analysis & Design form the basis of a successful product.  A deep QA insight of requirements & design may help a product to be successful there by retaining customers & not the product itself.  Our team of experienced & highly qualified QA engineers constantly analyzes the requirements while developing test cases using real time & exhaustive set of scenarios under which the system may fail to meet customer’s expectations.  Hence, if a real time scenario requires an extra but highly important & crucial feature, it is incorporated into the requirement & the design, thus enhancing & refining the requirements.

2. Testing in Real Time
As IPNetCam evolved as a product, the testing cycles evolved & matured with real time scenarios where the system may fail.  Following are the different types of testing we have for the product IPNetCam

• Functionality Testing: ensures that all documented features are working flawlessly
• Reliability Testing: ensures that the product works consistently & smoothly and is able to withstand under varied and extreme situations
• Regression Testing: ensures that the buggy functionalities once fixed don’t bug again & that they don’t affect the other areas of the application.
• Stress & Load testing: ensure that the system will work properly under different user loads and doesn’t crash unexpectedly
• Automation Testing: help eliminate the human factor up to a certain extent from the testing cycle and ensure that all functionalities are thoroughly & consistently tested using a set of predefined test cases & scenarios.

The Hurdles:

• Testing in a real time environment under different weather conditions at different times of the day.
• Testing the Video analytics library for reliability of alerts.

The Technology:
Automation of various test cases for volume and 24x7 testing was done using the automation tool SilkTest 7.0