Video analytics system for surveillance videos

Developing an intelligent inspection system that can enhance the public safety is challenging. An efficient video analytics system can help monitor unusual events and mitigate possible damage or loss. This thesis aims to analyze surveillance video data, report abnormal activities and retrieve corresponding video clips. The surveillance video dataset used in this thesis is derived from ALERT Dataset, a collection of surveillance videos at airport security checkpoints. The video analytics system in this thesis can be thought as a pipelined process. The system takes the surveillance video as input, and passes it through a series of processing such as object detection, multi-object tracking, person-bin association and re-identification. In the end, we can obtain trajectories of passengers and baggage in the surveillance videos. Abnormal events like taking away other's belongings will be detected and trigger the alarm automatically. The system could also retrieve the corresponding video clips based on user-defined query

User-interface to a CCTV video search system

The proliferation of CCTV surveillance systems creates a problem of how to effectively navigate and search the resulting video archive, in a variety of security scenarios. We are concerned here with a situation where a searcher must locate all occurrences of a given person or object within a specified timeframe and with constraints on which camera(s) footage is valid to search. Conventional approaches based on browsing time/camera based combinations are inadequate. We advocate using automatically detected video objects as a basis for search, linking and browsing. In this paper we present a system under development based on users interacting with detected video objects. We outline the suite of technologies needed to achieve such a system and for each we describe where we are in terms of realizing those technologies. We also present a system interface to this system, designed with user needs and user tasks in mind

Can we ID from CCTV? Image quality in digital CCTV and face identification performance

CCTV is used for an increasing number Of purposes, and the new generation of digital systems can be tailored to serve a wide range of security requirements. However, configuration decisions are often made without considering specific task requirements, e.g. the video quality needed for reliable person identification. Our Study investigated the relationship between video quality and the ability of untrained viewers to identify faces from digital CCTV images. The task required 80 participants to identify 64 faces belonging to 4 different ethnicities. Participants compared face images taken from a high quality photographs and low quality CCTV stills, which were recorded at 4 different video quality bit rates (32, 52, 72 and 92 Kbps). We found that the number of correct identifications decreased by 12 (similar to 18%) as MPEG-4 quality decreased from 92 to 32 Kbps, and by 4 (similar to 6%) as Wavelet video quality decreased from 92 to 32 Kbps. To achieve reliable and effective face identification, we recommend that MPEG-4 CCTV systems should be used over Wavelet, and video quality should not be lowered below 52 Kbps during video compression. We discuss the practical implications of these results for security, and contribute a contextual methodology for assessing CCTV video quality

Developing an Effective Enforcement System for a Marine Reserve in the Pitcairn Islands

This paper details how monitoring and enforcement of the Pitcairn Island's exclusive economic zone could be effectively undertaken for a relatively low level of expenditure. It is important to note that there is no such thing as perfect enforcement, although, in general, the greater the funds available, the closer to perfection an enforcement system is likely to get. This paper does not attempt to detail how near-to-perfect enforcement might be achieved because establishing such a system would be far too costly to be a realistic policy option. Rather, it outlines the most important steps that could be taken to create a robust enforcement system and reviews some affordable technologies that could be deployed to support it. Creating a marine reserve and deploying these relatively low-cost options would protect Pitcairn Islands' exclusive economic zone far better than it currently is, and far better than the vast majority of oceans worldwide. These actions would distinguish the United Kingdom as a world leader in responsible stewardship of the marine environment

Regional Data Archiving and Management for Northeast Illinois

This project studies the feasibility and implementation options for establishing a regional data archiving system to help monitor and manage traffic operations and planning for the northeastern Illinois region. It aims to provide a clear guidance to the regional transportation agencies, from both technical and business perspectives, about building such a comprehensive transportation information system. Several implementation alternatives are identified and analyzed. This research is carried out in three phases. In the first phase, existing documents related to ITS deployments in the broader Chicago area are summarized, and a thorough review is conducted of similar systems across the country. Various stakeholders are interviewed to collect information on all data elements that they store, including the format, system, and granularity. Their perception of a data archive system, such as potential benefits and costs, is also surveyed. In the second phase, a conceptual design of the database is developed. This conceptual design includes system architecture, functional modules, user interfaces, and examples of usage. In the last phase, the possible business models for the archive system to sustain itself are reviewed. We estimate initial capital and recurring operational/maintenance costs for the system based on realistic information on the hardware, software, labor, and resource requirements. We also identify possible revenue opportunities. A few implementation options for the archive system are summarized in this report; namely: 1. System hosted by a partnering agency 2. System contracted to a university 3. System contracted to a national laboratory 4. System outsourced to a service provider The costs, advantages and disadvantages for each of these recommended options are also provided.ICT-R27-22published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe