Video Based Flame Detection Using Spatio-Temporal Features and SVM Classification

Video-based surveillance systems can be used for early fire detection and localization in order to minimize the damage and casualties caused by wildfires. However, reliability of these systems is an important issue and therefore early detection versus false alarm rate has to be considered. In this paper, we present a new algorithm for video based flame detection, which identifies spatio-temporal features of fire such as colour probability, contour irregularity, spatial energy, flickering and spatio-temporal energy. For each candidate region of an image a feature vector is generated and used as input to an SVM classifier, which discriminates between fire and fire-coloured regions. Experimental results show that the proposed methodology provides high fire detection rates with a reasonable false alarm ratio

A region based approach to background modeling in a wavelet multi-resolution framework

In the field of detection and monitoring of dynamic objects in quasi-static scenes, background subtraction techniques where background is modeled at pixel-level, although showing very significant limitations, are extensively used. In this work we propose a novel approach to background modeling that operates at region-level in a wavelet based multi-resolution framework. Based on a segmentation of the background, characterization is made for each region independently as a mixture of K Gaussian modes, considering the model of the approximation and detail coefficients at the different wavelet decomposition levels. Background region characterization is updated along time, and the detection of elements of interest is carried out computing the distance between background region models and those of each incoming image in the sequence. The inclusion of the context in the modeling scheme through each region characterization makes the model robust, being able to support not only gradual illumination and long-term changes, but also sudden illumination changes and the presence of strong shadows in the scen

Segmenting Foreground Objects from a Dynamic Textured Background via a Robust Kalman Filter

The algorithm presented in this paper aims to segment the foreground objects in video (e.g., people) given time-varying, textured backgrounds. Examples of time-varying backgrounds include waves on water, clouds moving, trees waving in the wind, automobile traffic, moving crowds, escalators, etc. We have developed a novel foreground-background segmentation algorithm that explicitly accounts for the non-stationary nature and clutter-like appearance of many dynamic textures. The dynamic texture is modeled by an Autoregressive Moving Average Model (ARMA). A robust Kalman filter algorithm iteratively estimates the intrinsic appearance of the dynamic texture, as well as the regions of the foreground objects. Preliminary experiments with this method have demonstrated promising results

Video foreground detection based on symmetric alpha-stable mixture models.

Background subtraction (BS) is an efficient technique for detecting moving objects in video sequences. A simple BS process involves building a model of the background and extracting regions of the foreground (moving objects) with the assumptions that the camera remains stationary and there exist no movements in the background. These assumptions restrict the applicability of BS methods to real-time object detection in video. In this paper, we propose an extended cluster BS technique with a mixture of symmetric alpha stable (SS) distributions. An on-line self-adaptive mechanism is presented that allows automated estimation of the model parameters using the log moment method. Results over real video sequences from indoor and outdoor environments, with data from static and moving video cameras are presented. The SS mixture model is shown to improve the detection performance compared with a cluster BS method using a Gaussian mixture model and the method of Li et al. [11]

Flame Detection for Video-based Early Fire Warning Systems and 3D Visualization of Fire Propagation

Early and accurate detection and localization of flame is an essential requirement of modern early fire warning systems. Video-based systems can be used for this purpose; however, flame detection remains a challenging issue due to the fact that many natural objects have similar characteristics with fire. In this paper, we present a new algorithm for video based flame detection, which employs various spatio-temporal features such as colour probability, contour irregularity, spatial energy, flickering and spatio-temporal energy. Various background subtraction algorithms are tested and comparative results in terms of computational efficiency and accuracy are presented. Experimental results with two classification methods show that the proposed methodology provides high fire detection rates with a reasonable false alarm ratio. Finally, a 3D visualization tool for the estimation of the fire propagation is outlined and simulation results are presented and discussed.The original article was published by ACTAPRESS and is available here: http://www.actapress.com/Content_of_Proceeding.aspx?proceedingid=73

Detection thresholding using mutual information

In this paper, we introduce a novel non-parametric thresholding method that we term Mutual-Information Thresholding. In our approach, we choose the two detection thresholds for two input signals such that the mutual information between the thresholded signals is maximised. Two efficient algorithms implementing our idea are presented: one using dynamic programming to fully explore the quantised search space and the other method using the Simplex algorithm to perform gradient ascent to significantly speed up the search, under the assumption of surface convexity. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in foreground detection (using multi-modal data) and as a component in a person detection system