I think cameras like Cohu sells may have increased sales in the next few years for security applications. Let me explain. I know a guy who is security chief for a small Nevada casino. He has like 10 cameras always working. These record to videotapes. Videotape is always being changed. If something meaningful happens, they track down the relevant videotapes. Pretty primitive, really. The video quality is good enough, but not great. But today casinos will pay the freight for such systems, because it is cost effective for them. When high quality cameras can load data onto new bigger hard drives in a meaningful way, casinos will go that way. But more importantly, lots of other entities will, such as department stores and commercial buildings. The limit on using cameras to watch over an area now is primarily the cost of the videotape, the quality of the videotape (not the quality of what the camera can capture) and the monitoring, not so much the cameras. When the ability comes to keep the camera data in high quality storage, easily accessed, cheaply, then there will be more camera security systems sold. Crooks everywhere will feel more and more like they are in the 7-11 store, always possibly having a camera on them (like now they have to worry about DNA). But this could be 5-10 years off, and in investing, 5-10 years is forever. Still, I think it will happen. So buy COHU and VECO. lol.
Geoff Wren |
