Home > Bus CCTV could help
predict assaults, 25th September 2009
Picture: London
Navigator Concept by Jamie Martin
CCTV is already widely used in mass transportation, from
monitoring passengers at train and bus stations, to recording
the passengers during the journey. However the CCTV footage
is only useful in helping to reduce the impact of crime
once the offense has actually taken place.
Researchers at the Queens University Belfast in Ireland
believe that they've come up with an intelligent CCTV
system which can actually predict when an assault is imminent.
The system does this by using a computer to analyze the
behavior of the passengers and look for any suspicious
behavior which is a precursor to a criminal act.
While the technology is currently in a very early stage
of development, the team believes that within five years
the system could be able to profile passengers as they
enter the bus. It would then compare the passengers against
who the system thinks these people are, and what they
are doing, with more general data on the bus's location,
time of day and recent crime statistics.
Once it has gathered this data the system would then decide
whether an assault is about to take place. If it concludes
an attack is imminent it will warn CCTV operators to announce
over a speaker that they are monitoring the situation
in the hopes the would-be attacker decides not to strike.
While this all sounds very high-tech and fancy let's look
at the downsides of the system. Firstly there's no guarantee
the system will be accurate. Secondly it's just another
way of actually reducing Police presence by substituting
officers for an extremely expensive camera. Thirdly, many
acts of assault take place regardless of if there's a
camera watching or not - and even if it does it will just
move the problem out of the bus and into the bus stop.
Here's what the system looks for:
- People moving seats
- Someone closing in on another passenger
- Groups of young men
- Persons shouting at a driver
- People falling over
- People loitering on stairwells
So essentially the camera's going to be watching everyone
on the bus all the time! And why do you need a predictive
camera to tell you that someone shouting at the driver
could cause a problem?
For the full story visit ecit.qub.ac.uk
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