High-Tech Museum Safeguards

Electronics has revolutionized museum security in the last two decades. According to Warren Danzenbaker, chief of security systems for the Smithsonian museums, a variety of high-tech detectors are now used to monitor storage areas and, when the museum is not open to the public, display rooms.

* Passive Infrared Sensors: Known in the industry as PIRs, these small sensors detect the body heat of humans. If a person walks into a room covered by activated PIRs, a signal should go out.

* Ultrasonic Sensors: These fill a room with inaudible, ultrasonic frequency sound patterns. If the patterns are disturbed by movement, an alarm is triggered.

* Microwave Sensors: Because microwaves travel through walls, these detectors can be hidden out of sight. They aim a microwave field into a space to detect movement.

Also in use are vibration, glass break and pressure sensors and magnetic contact switches that set off an alarm if a door or display case is opened.

Because a tiny wireless transmitter is affixed to every object on display at the Gene Autry museum, an alarm can be instantly localized, according to the designer of its security system, Joseph Chapman. If an object is disturbed and the alarm tripped, a digital read-out in the control room identifies the object and its location.

Security consultant Steven Keller, who designed the system for the Armand Hammer Museum now under construction in Westwood, said he is experimenting with a system that can trace the movement, on a screen, of any object as it is transported around a museum. He got the idea from an article he read about electronic chips embeded in the wrist bands of Alzheimer’s patients. The electronics enabled the staff of a residence home to keep track of the patients.

Another of the newer security tools is video motion detection, which is especially appropriate to museums such as the Gene Autry where more than 80 cameras are in use. The cameras designated for motion detection are trained on specific objects, be they paintings, sculptures, or display cases. Back in the control room, the outlines of these objects are traced with an electronic pencil on the video screens.

A guard in the control room, which has enough high-tech equipment to resemble a small NASA outpost, doesn’t have to keep constant watch on the screen. If any of the outlined objects is moved from its electronic boundary, the screen gives out audible and visible alarms.

Another camera used by both Chapman and Keller comes hidden inside what appears to be an ordinary fire sprinkler.

Chapman said his company generally charges, as a fee, between 1% and 2% of the architect’s fee. Additionally, he said, equipment costs will be $2-$4 a foot, depending on the system.

The fees and equipment costs can total between about $300,000 and several million dollars, Keller said, according to the size of a museum and the sophistication of its system.