Contextual anomaly detection in crowded surveillance scenes

AbstractThis work addresses the problem of detecting human behavioural anomalies in crowded surveillance environments. We focus in particular on the problem of detecting subtle anomalies in a behaviourally heterogeneous surveillance scene. To reach this goal we implement a novel unsupervised context-aware process. We propose and evaluate a method of utilising social context and scene context to improve behaviour analysis. We find that in a crowded scene the application of Mutual Information based social context permits the ability to prevent self-justifying groups and propagate anomalies in a social network, granting a greater anomaly detection capability. Scene context uniformly improves the detection of anomalies in both datasets. The strength of our contextual features is demonstrated by the detection of subtly abnormal behaviours, which otherwise remain indistinguishable from normal behaviour

Can a Building Be an Apparatus?

When Michel Foucault introduces the term, dispositif, commonly translated as ‘apparatus’, he uses the architectural example of the Panopticon to illustrate how power is exercised. A building, according to this line of thinking, seemingly has the capacity to exercise control on its occupants. But is this really the case? This paper examines the thinking of Foucault on the subject, and questions to what extent we can conceive of a building as being in and of itself an apparatus. It goes on to explore Foucault’s subsequent reflections on the subject in his interview with Paul Rabinow, ‘Space, Knowledge and Power’, where he seems to qualify his earlier remarks on the Panopticon. It then opens up the theory of affordances to question whether a building – or any other entities that could be perceived as operating as a tool or mechanism within the social realm – has the agency to control behaviour. Finally, the paper introduces Gilles Deleuze’s subsequent remarks in ‘Postscript on the Societies of Control’ where he contributes to the debate about the political agency of form by arguing that in our present age there has been an erosion in the hegemony of the physical, and current forms of control are more gaseous and invisible in their operations than a mere physical building. The paper concludes that it is too simplistic to regard a building in and of itself as an apparatus. At best it could be perceived as an element within a ‘system of relations’ that might constitute the apparatus

Can a Building Be an Apparatus?

When Michel Foucault introduces the term, dispositif, commonly translated as ‘apparatus’, he uses the architectural example of the Panopticon to illustrate how power is exercised. A building, according to this line of thinking, seemingly has the capacity to exercise control on its occupants. But is this really the case? This paper examines the thinking of Foucault on the subject, and questions to what extent we can conceive of a building as being in and of itself an apparatus. It goes on to explore Foucault’s subsequent reflections on the subject in his interview with Paul Rabinow, ‘Space, Knowledge and Power’, where he seems to qualify his earlier remarks on the Panopticon. It then opens up the theory of affordances to question whether a building – or any other entities that could be perceived as operating as a tool or mechanism within the social realm – has the agency to control behaviour. Finally, the paper introduces Gilles Deleuze’s subsequent remarks in ‘Postscript on the Societies of Control’ where he contributes to the debate about the political agency of form by arguing that in our present age there has been an erosion in the hegemony of the physical, and current forms of control are more gaseous and invisible in their operations than a mere physical building. The paper concludes that it is too simplistic to regard a building in and of itself as an apparatus. At best it could be perceived as an element within a ‘system of relations’ that might constitute the apparatus

Sickle cell trait and risk of cognitive impairment in African-Americans: The REGARDS cohort

Background: Sickle cell anemia may be associated with cognitive dysfunction, and some complications of sickle cell anemia might affect those with sickle cell trait (SCT), so we hypothesized that SCT is a risk factor for cognitive impairment. Methods: The Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study enrolled a national cohort of 30,239 white and black Americans from 2003 to 7, who are followed every 6 months. Baseline and annual global cognitive function testing used the Six-Item Screener (SIS), a validated instrument (scores range 0-6; ≤ 4 indicates cognitive impairment). Participants with baseline cognitive impairment and whites were excluded. Logistic regression was used to calculate the association of SCT with incident cognitive impairment, adjusted for risk factors. Linear mixed models assessed multivariable-adjusted change in test scores on a biennially administered 3-test battery measuring learning, memory, and semantic and phonemic fluency. Findings: Among 7743 participants followed for a median of 7·1 years, 85 of 583 participants with SCT (14·6%) developed incident cognitive impairment compared to 902 of 7160 (12·6%) without SCT. In univariate analysis, the odds ratio (OR) of incident cognitive impairment was 1·18 (95% CI: 0·93, 1·51) for those with SCT vs. those without. Adjustment did not impact the OR. There was no difference in change on 3-test battery scores by SCT status (all p > 0·11). Interpretation: In this prospective cohort study of black Americans, SCT was not associated with incident cognitive impairment or decline in test scores of learning, memory and executive function. Funding: National Institutes of Health, American Society of Hematology