The Remote Video Inspection System (RVIS) was deployed by United States in the late 1990s at select low-traffic border entry points from Canada. The system allowed passport and customs inspections to be conducted remotely, so that low-risk travelers could enter the country during hours that the border station did not have on-site staff. The system was successfully deployed at a number of entry points, in six different states. RVIS was discontinued following the

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Conception

In the early 1990s, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was interested in finding ways to enable low-risk travelers to enter the United States from Canada at small ports of entry after inspection services had ended for the day. INS commissioned its contractor EDS, as well as the Department of Transportation

John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center or simply Volpe in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a center of transportation and logistics expertise, operating under the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT). The Volpe C ...

and its contractors Labblee Inc. and Bishop Systems to develop and deploy a system that transmitted audio, video and data to an inspector at a nearby 24-hour port of entry. The system was originally named "Remote Inspection Communicator And Remote Document Observer" (RICARDO), but the name was changed to Remote Video Inspection System (RVIS) prior to its first deployment.

Deployment

RVIS consisted of a series of

pan–tilt–zoom camera PTZ is an abbreviation that stands for pan-tilt-zoom. The term " pan" refers to the horizontal movement of the lens, "tilt" refers to the vertical movement of the lens, and " zoom" refers to the adjustment of the focal length of the lens. PTZ cam ...

s (PTZ), an amplified

speakerphone A speakerphone is a telephone with a microphone and loudspeaker provided separately from those in the handset. This device allows multiple persons to participate in a conversation. The loudspeaker broadcasts the voice or voices of those on the ot ...

, a

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and a

telecommunications device for the deaf A telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) is a teleprinter, an electronic device for text communication over a telephone line, that is designed for use by persons with hearing or speech difficulties. Other names for the device include te ...

(TDD). There were vehicle sensors at the

Canada–United States border The border between Canada and the United States is the longest international border in the world. The terrestrial boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Can ...

that initiated the system, and exit sensors that alerted operators that a drive-by had occurred. There were also area lights, a text display and a traffic signal. Some ports of entry had electronic gates for traffic management. Inspectors at the remote location could control the PTZ cameras, and conduct a verbal interview with the driver and passengers. The first two RVIS sites were at the border crossings of Forest City and

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Maine Maine () is a U.S. state, state in the New England and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and territories of Canad ...

in 1996. By 2000, RVIS systems had been deployed at 18 of 22 planned locations: RVIS system at the Pittsburg NH port of entry

: Closed since 2006 : Closed since 2013 RVIS was planned for the Morses Line Border Crossing in

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, but local residents opposed its installation. However, in 2016, the Canadian side implemented a similar system.

Decommission

The RVIS system never achieved its full potential because its deployment pre-dated the rollout of high speed data networking at all ports of entry, which caused the video transmission to be slow and cumbersome. Its usage was suspended following the

, and the RVIS system was officially decommissioned on November 1, 2002.

Conception

Deployment

Decommission

See also

References

Further reading