Intelligent camera surveillance creates safety in public places
Lehtikuva/Sari Gustafsson Every year these solitary suitcases give a lot of extra work for safety authorities at airports and other public spaces.VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is in the process of developing image analysis technology, which improves the supervision of abandoned or unattended articles in public places.
The goal of the European Commission funded SUBITO project is to improve the image analysis technology of existing camera surveillance systems. The application being developed in the project will enable cameras to automatically recognise abandoned baggage, and promptly identify the individual who has left the luggage behind, and his or her subsequent path and current location.
The project has lead VTT to develop tools that optimise the use of intelligent cameras. VTT trusts that the new application will be in demand, and that there is a market for it, since it enables the utilisation of the captured footage even before anything has happened.
An abandoned suitcase left in a public place can pose a risk situation since it can contain explosives or other substances jeopardising public safety. Baggage surveillance is important especially at airports, railways stations, fairgrounds and in public spaces of nationally significant infrastructures.
Safety authorities can relocate an unattended suitcase quickly, if it is assessed to cause a risk situation. The suitcase can be transferred for instance to the lost and found of a fairground or airport, if it has produced an unnecessary alarm.
The new technology can be installed in an existing surveillance system. There are ten partner organizations from six different European Union countries involved in the project. The partners are experts in the field from research centres, universities, industrial companies and end-users.
MT
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