Smart catch on CCTV

Claims that CCTV has failed to cut crime and that the system is a “fiasco” initiated proposals to reform the way police use CCTV. Richard Farnworth believes the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (VIIDO) can go much further to realise the full potential of CCTV surveillance

You’ve been framed: Smart Catch CCTV identifying unusual behaviour patterns at Hong Kong airport

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, head of the
specialist CCTV unit at the Metropolitan Police, recently claimed that the huge investment in surveillance technology has failed to cut crime in the UK. Stating that the system was an “utter fiasco” he said that no thought had gone into how CCTV was being used.

The Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (VIIDO) has outlined plans to use new technology from the sports advertising industry, posting images of crime on the Internet and building a national CCTV image database.

It is a positive step that it has been identified that the UK’s CCTV network is currently not fit for purpose. However, the announced plans do not go far enough to rectify the situation, and there are several other
key strategies that should be deployed to dramatically reduce crime using active CCTV solutions.

Security and safety are major concerns facing all organisations today and, in response, millions of CCTV cameras have been installed worldwide to control
access, secure perimeters and monitor for theft, damage or attack.

This is very positive, however, lots of cameras require lots of operators to monitor them and, in many cases, are required to retrospectively review the footage
when an incident has already occurred.

These security personnel and police forces have other potentially more important real-time duties to perform so this reactive, after-the-event approach cannot
deliver the level of effective realtime security needed in today’s environment.

The new measures announced by VIIDO merely enhance reactive observation of crime, rather than enabling proactive detection or prevention.

As highlighted by DCI Neville, one of the biggest challenges with CCTV being effective is ensuring that the watchers are being watched, and currently the
surveillance teams clearly do not have enough time or the inclination to monitor all the footage and respond to the action.

VIIDO should consider deploying “smart” active CCTV
systems that can analyse the behaviour of potential criminals in real-time, to allow the proactive detection and prevention of crime.

These “smart” systems transmit the video image which is then automatically monitored by a sophisticated system for a range of simple to complex behaviours, such as unattended objects, undue dwell times, loitering and intrusion.

Certain footage is then automatically highlighted to a human monitor. These are known as “exceptions” – footage will not be automatically identified except
if a certain type of behaviour is detected by the smart active CCTV system.

Therefore, CCTV surveillance staff are alerted to potentially criminal behaviour in real-time. Smart CCTV is not intended to reduce the amount of footage
captured by the UK’s extensive CCTV network: it would minimise the amount of time and resources required to effectively monitor vast numbers of screens.

As this is a real-time response, the authorities can be
alerted as these exceptions occur, making the CCTV a more effective and accurate alternative to a human monitor.

Smart active CCTV systems are already in use in complex and high-risk environments globally, such as airports, immigration and border control agencies. These provide excellent examples of complex environments that face both high security threats
and high area footfall.

With the UK gearing up to the 2012 London Olympics, it is vital that the security services do not rely on ineffective systems to prevent and detect malicious activity.

The promised initiatives will go some way in improving the situation, but there is still a long way to realise the full potential of CCTV in the prevention of crime
on our streets.

The benefits of smart, or intelligent, active CCTV are so obvious that it is curious that these solutions have not been effectively utilised so far in the prevention of crime.

The most advanced smart CCTV solutions – essentially
intelligent video surveillance software – available on the market today have true behaviour recognition
capabilities, enabling the detection of suspicious behaviours that threaten safety and security in real-time, alerting the appropriate security staff for effective, immediate and efficient response.

Tailored, or scenario-based, packages are available for specific types of detection, including:

● Crowd detection – detects crowd size and queue length to prevent overcrowding situations
● Exit lane – detects people going the wrong way in singledirection entrance or exit lanes
● Human tailgating/piggybacking – detects multiple people tailgating or piggybacking on a single access card
● Loitering – detects people or vehicles loitering near secure or high-value areas
● Perimeter intrusion – detects and tracks people, vehicles, or other object intrusions into secured areas
● Removed objects – detects the removal of stationary objects
● Stopped vehicle – detects vehicles stopped near sensitive areas for a prolonged period
● Turnstile violation – detects people hopping over or crawling under an access gate
● Unattended objects – detects objects such as packages, luggage, and carts that are left unattended for a specified period of time
● Vehicle tailgating/piggybacking – detects multiple vehicles tailgating or piggybacking on a single access card.

Beyond smart CCTV, in the future, police forces could go a step further and consider integrating face-recognition technology, as another layer on top of
smart CCTV. Whilst this is unlikely to become a reality in the UK in the near future, it is not a futuristic or unproven option.

For example, NEC delivered an immigration control system to the Hong Kong immigration office that features the world’s first car-passenger face identification system, using NEC’s NeoFace system.

The system enables face identification of car passengers by way of a database check when vehicles pass through immigration control points between
Hong Kong and mainland China, based on biometric information compiled as part of a national ID card scheme.

The adoption of facial recognition in the UK is nowhere near the level in the Far East.

However, agencies and organisations are looking at facial recognition technology for ways of tackling issues such as duplicate checking and attribute matching where a photograph or camera image (still and video) is an integral part of identification.

This has many potential applications across government agencies, policing, security and guarding, transportation and border control.

With billions of pounds already spent on CCTV infrastructure, and woefully-low rates of CCTV footage solving crimes being reported in the media, it is time for security agencies and the Government to act with
urgency and investigate how active CCTV can be used proactively to detect and prevent crime, rather than hope it will act as a deterrent.

For further information about the NEC UK Smart Catch or NeoFace solutions, please contact Richard Farnworth on richard.farnworth@eu.nec.com
For a real representation of smart active CCTV please visit http://www.smartcatch.fi/

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