New Test Set for Video Quality Benchmarking

A new test set design and benchmarking approach (US Patent pending) allows a standard observer to assess the end-to-end image quality characteristics of video imaging systems operating in day time or low-light conditions. It uses randomized targets based on extensive application of Photometry, Geometrical Optics, and Digital Media. The benchmarking takes into account the target’s contrast sensitivity, its color characteristics, and several aspects of human vision such as visual acuity and dynamic response. The standard observer is part of the extended video imaging system (EVIS). The new test set allows image quality benchmarking by a panel of standard observers at the same time. The new approach shows that an unbiased assessment can be guaranteed. Manufacturers, system integrators, and end users will assess end-to-end performance by simulating a choice of different colors, luminance levels, and dynamic conditions in the laboratory or in permanent video systems installations

Facilities management help desks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an exploratory look at facilities and estates management help desks in four different case study organisations. Design/methodology/approach – A case study methodology was adopted, with semi-structured interviews and observations as the principal methods to collect data. Findings – The findings suggest that the key factors for the success of a facilities management (FM) help desk include mapping out all customer requirements, recruiting the correct operating staff, ensuring an appropriate working environment and client communication once the help desk is operational. Originality/value – At the time of the study there had been relatively little research completed focusing specifically on FM help desks. The paper will be of value to facilities and property managers who are considering implementing a help desk service

International best practices in managing unplanned disruption to suburban rail services

This paper analyses the management approaches of passenger railways towards unplanned disruption of service, and provides examples of best practices from suburban railways around the world. The priority of participating railways is to return service to normal as quickly as possible and provide at least some services on core routes. The greatest challenges include the provision of accurate and consistent information, arranging alternative transport and the need to make fast decisions. The paper highlights a number of best practices, such as the use of ‘Central Crisis Rooms’ as the focal point for all disruption management, including decision making, CCTV coverage of affected areas and liaison with alternative transport providers

Reducing risk and injury to transit officers

This thesis examines whether an understanding of the communication and safety culture of transit officers, who form part of a security section of a large state Rail Transport Organisation (RTO), can lead to strategies to reduce their risk of injury. The core functions of the transit officer position are passenger safety and customer service. This puts the officers in the front line of defence against the antisocial behaviour from some patrons that occurs regularly on the railway system. Like urban railways the world over, this anti-social behaviour can range from bad language to severe violence. Whilst these officers are not police, they do have many similar powers to police, such as the ‘power of arrest’ to deal with certain offences committed on railway property. A key difference, however, is that transit officers tend to deal with issues as they arise, whereas the police are more likely to respond to an event after its occurrence. Additionally, unlike many policing organisations, transit officers are not equipped with a taser or firearm, but rely on their communication skills and physical training to defuse a potentially threatening situation, and a baton and pepper spray for self-defence. Over the years an unacceptable number of injuries have been sustained by the RTO transit officers in dealing with anti-social behaviour. Whilst the organisation requires that statistics for incidents and injuries remain confidential, it is nonetheless known that the incident rate is above that of workers in other traditionally hazardous industries, such as construction. Further, surveys conducted on behalf of the RTO also indicate that passengers feel less safe at night due to the anti-social behaviour evident on the rail system. This raises issues about the safety culture. The term ‘safety culture’ became important in safety science as a result of accident enquiries, analysis of safety failures and organisational disasters which attributed fault to the organisation’s internal attitudes to safety. Many of these organisations had comprehensive safety systems in place; however these investigations identified the importance of human factors in the equation. Safety systems did not mean that the organisation had a culture of safety. To study the culture of a group it is necessary to understand their basic assumptions, espoused values and the artefacts that the group holds as important. These play a significant part in determining people’s behaviour, their adherence to safety procedures and communication in the workplace. In terms of the safety culture on the RTO trains, transit officers have commonly said that anyone wanting to understand the provocation and violence that they deal with in their work environment would need to work alongside them. This research responds to that challenge to understand the cultural and communication dynamics that exist within the transit officer cadre and in exchanges between passenger and transit officers. An ethnographic protocol was chosen, which in this instance involved the researcher participating directly in the workplace and building close relationships with the transit officers. Recognising the significance of obtaining ‘insider status’ the researcher commenced the fieldwork by joining a new intake of transit officers embarking upon the twelve-week training program. Importantly, taking this path enabled the researcher to obtain credibility amongst the transit officers through their shared experiences. Following graduation from training, the researcher spent a further month in the closed circuit television monitoring room obtaining an overview of the many activities involving transit officers that occur during the night throughout the metropolitan rail system. From this communication heart, the Shift Commander can communicate directly by radio with all transit officers; and the video operators can monitor activities from cameras which are situated on all railway infrastructure. The researcher spent the following four months immersed in the transit officers’ world. This included working alongside the officers during the evening and night, being rostered on their shifts and engaging with the variety of their duties on trains, stations and delta vehicle patrols. The information gleaned during this time became the basis of the formal interviews which took place at the end of that period. The researcher later met with ‘best-practice’ transit policing organisations to determine what strategies these organisations had in place to reduce rail officer injury rates. The collaborating organisations included transit policing agencies in the United States, Canada, Britain and interstate Australia. Information obtained during the RTO field work was evaluated against safety practices and the safety culture in these high performing organisations. Recommendations to reduce the risk of injury for transit officers and improve communication practices within the transit officer cadre were subsequently submitted to the industry partner for consideration. A safer workplace for transit officers would reduce transit officers’ personal suffering, leaving more transit officers at work, reducing workers’ compensation costs, and providing a safer environment for passengers

RITThe Contributions of Traffic Management Centers in life Enhancement

This study focuses on investigating the contributions of traffic management centers to enhancing people’s driving experiences and impacting their level of satisfaction and happiness. Data was collected in the United Arab Emirates through two distinct surveys; the first aimed at drivers (number of respondents: 155), and the second aimed at traffic management center operators (number of respondents: 15). The drivers survey aimed to collect data about drivers’ pain points experienced while driving in the United Arab Emirates and showed that slow drivers on fast lanes and sudden lane changing are the biggest challenges reported. On the operators’ side, the data collected showed that operators reported observing these challenges from their side as well. Operators also notably reported the need for advanced technology to help better manage and respond to real time traffic situations remotely from traffic management centers. Both surveys conducted showed a need and potential for the contributions of traffic management centers in enhancing and upgrading the quality of life for citizens through the application of technological solutions and the development of supporting legislation. Supplementary data from similar surveys was also used to validate, expand the knowledge and provide a holistic view of the topic. The study indicated that traffic management centers can impact the happiness and satisfaction of citizens by enhancing their driving experience, given that they are designed and equipped in a way that suits the city and society trends and cultures. Recommendations for implementation of such design choices were given along five pillars considering administration (based on best practice and Benchmarking), technology (results of local and international TMC surveys), media and communication (international survey and the expansion of technology and social media), operations and legislation (Based on results of the driver’s survey, that shows some gaps in the legislations which can be enhanced)

Performance Indicators Development for Toll Road Minimum Services Standards in Indonesia

During recent years the infrastructure sector has grown tremendously, particularly toll roads. Toll road sections spread across several provinces in Indonesia are managed by various Toll Road Operators with different management styles. In providing their services to the public, Government requires the operators to meet a certain Toll Road Minimum Service Standard. Unfortunately, some of the performance indicators do not meet this standard any longer. The purpose of this research was to obtain performance indicators. The basic performance indicators were obtained from literature review of previous Indonesian research, several benchmarked foreign countries, and from the government’s minimum service standard. Next to that a survey was conducted by collecting data through questionnaires to toll road users, operators, regulators, and experts. The result provides an overview of stakeholders’ interests in determining KPIs and SPIs. 20 KPIs and 11 SPIs were obtained. Based on the evaluation and trial test that was carried out, the performance indicators obtained from this research can be applied to develop toll road MSS performance indicators in Indonesia

The Roles of Campus Protection Services for Students’Safety: A Case of a Higher Education Institution in South Africa

Purpose: Students’ safety and security problem have been reported as a regular problem across institutions of higher learning in South Africa. This paper departs from regularly reported cases of theft in student belongings in a South African university. The purpose of this study was to investigate the roles and involvement of the Campus Protection Services (CPS) in ensuring students’ safety in an identified institution of learning.Methodology: The paper report findings obtained through the mixed methods approach which used questionnaires – with 265 cases returned and analyzed with document analysis to support the quantitative results.Findings: The main findings reveal in descending order, that the main forms of campus crimes are theft, mugging, damage to property, robbery, assault, and stalking. Ascribed reasons to these crimes were administrative shortfalls, broken equipment, frequent substance abuse and students’ negligence and lifestyle. This paper recommends that campus management and security departments reach a holistic solution that brings together all stakeholder of the learning environment, thus establishing baseline policies for keeping students and their belongings safe in a typical learning environment.Originality/Value: This research assesses The Roles of Campus Protection Services for Students ‘Safety in South Africa

The complexities of technology-based care : telecare as perceived by care practitioners

Telecare, which offers ‘care at a distance’ (Pols, 2012) through a variety of remote monitoring technologies, has developed rapidly across health and social care policy in many developed countries. Nonetheless, approaches to this development differ; the focus of this paper is the United Kingdom, where implementation has been particularly rapid and ambitious in scope. The paper argues that, while there are clear and tangible benefits from the use of some telecare technologies, there is insufficient research about the complexities of implementation with end users. These complexities include ethical questions raised by the use of monitoring and surveillance equipment, the ability to fine tune technologies to the needs of individuals, and the way in which care relationships may be altered by remote care mediated through technologies. This paper addresses these issues through a particularly under researched area; that is, the perceptions of care practitioners who assess for, and interact with, these technologies. The research was conducted with practitioners using qualitative research methodology. The paper concludes that Telecare practice is uneven in the way it addresses complexities and that more needs to be done to understand the way in which technologies are discussed and utilised by those charged with their implementation

Modelling Driver Interdependent Behaviour in Agent-Based Traffic Simulations for Disaster Management

Accurate modelling of driver behaviour in evacuations is vitally important in creating realistic training environments for disaster management. However, few current models have satisfactorily incorporated the variety of factors that affect driver behaviour. In particular, the interdependence of driver behaviours is often seen in real-world evacuations, but is not represented in current state-of-the art traffic simulators. To address this shortcoming, we present an agent-based behaviour model based on the social forces model of crowds. Our model uses utility-based path trees to represent the forces which affect a driver's decisions. We demonstrate, by using a metric of route similarity, that our model is able to reproduce the real-life evacuation behaviour whereby drivers follow the routes taken by others. The model is compared to the two most commonly used route choice algorithms, that of quickest route and real-time re-routing, on three road networks: an artificial "ladder" network, and those of Lousiana, USA and Southampton, UK. When our route choice forces model is used our measure of route similarity increases by 21%-93%. Furthermore, a qualitative comparison demonstrates that the model can reproduce patterns of behaviour observed in the 2005 evacuation of the New Orleans area during Hurricane Katrina

Effective design, configuration, and use of digital CCTV

It is estimated that there are five million CCTV cameras in use today. CCTV is used by a wide range of organisations and for an increasing number of purposes. Despite this, there has been little research to establish whether these systems are fit for purpose. This thesis takes a socio-technical approach to determine whether CCTV is effective, and if not, how it could be made more effective. Humancomputer interaction (HCI) knowledge and methods have been applied to improve this understanding and what is needed to make CCTV effective; this was achieved in an extensive field study and two experiments. In Study 1, contextual inquiry was used to identify the security goals, tasks, technology and factors which affected operator performance and the causes at 14 security control rooms. The findings revealed a number of factors which interfered with task performance, such as: poor camera positioning, ineffective workstation setups, difficulty in locating scenes, and the use of low-quality CCTV recordings. The impact of different levels of video quality on identification and detection performance was assessed in two experiments using a task-focused methodology. In Study 2, 80 participants identified 64 face images taken from four spatially compressed video conditions (32, 52, 72, and 92 Kbps). At a bit rate quality of 52 Kbps (MPEG-4), the number of faces correctly identified reached significance. In Study 3, 80 participants each detected 32 events from four frame rate CCTV video conditions (1, 5, 8, and 12 fps). Below 8 frames per second, correct detections and task confidence ratings decreased significantly. These field and empirical research findings are presented in a framework using a typical CCTV deployment scenario, which has been validated through an expert review. The contributions and limitations of this thesis are reviewed, and suggestions for how the framework should be further developed are provided