I read with incredulity the large amounts of money being spent on image processing for CCTV applications to turn the millions of cameras across the UK into 'intelligent' systems (News, 9 March).
The real problem with the vast majority of these cameras is not their ability to extract useful information from images but the fact that they have, for want of a better technical term, 'crap' lenses on the front.
I believe that the average cost of the lens on a CCTV system is £25 — about one-hundredth the cost of the installation.
It doesn't matter how much is spent on the camera and fancy image processing if the system is immediately compromised by degrading the incoming image with a low-cost lens.
Spend a little more on the lens and the overall image will improve — then use intelligent image processing.
Ian Johnstone, Northampton
Image problem
UK productivity hindered by digital skills deficit – report
This is a bit of a nebulous subject. There are several sub-disciplines of 'digital skills' which all need different approaches. ...