Intelligent CCTV for Proactive Security

Video surveillance systems have attracted worldwide attention since they were used to such great effect to track the movements of the four suicide bombers in the days before their attack on the London Underground in July 2005. Despite their usefulness, most current surveillance systems only provide reactive security by enabling the analysis of activities after the terrorist attack has already occurred — what is needed is proactive security to help prevent future attacks. Intelligent Closed-Circuit TV (ICCTV) systems use powerful computers to analyse the video feeds to assist human operators to detect events of interest as they occur — an example might be recognising the face of a suspected terrorist in a crowded railway station. In this project, we plan to run long term trials of advanced ICCTV technologies in important and sensitive public spaces such as major ports and railway stations, so that we can address operational and capability deficiencies in current ICCTV systems. The field trial component of the proposal in conjunction with established vendors will ensure that the ICCTV research is focussed on operational and real-world deployment issues in the Australian context. The research component funded by NICTA aims to improve the counter-terrorism capabilities and sensitivities of ICCTV systems whilst reducing the false alarm rate.

This project is funded by the National Security Science and Technology Unit of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet through NICTA.

Australian Demographic Face Database and Capture System

The aim of this project is to enhance identity management systems, particularly automatic face recognition systems. Standard practice for the benchmark evaluation and development of face recognition technologies relies on large face databases captured under known conditions. At present no face database deals with the surveillance scenario (e.g., images from CCTV cameras), nor with Australian demographics. In this project we will create a new face database to address these issues. This database will not only allow for the benchmark evaluation (and tuning) of existing face recognition technologies, but will also provide invaluable guidance for research and development of new recognition approaches (e.g. by identifying the weaknesses in current approaches). The outcomes of the project include the design specifications for a capture studio, as well as one physical instance of the studio to be used for creating the database. Furthermore, software will be developed which will provide an easy to use interface to the database. Counter-terrorism agencies as well as organisations dealing with identity management will have an integral role in developing the exact requirements for the database. It is envisaged that it will cover conditions such as varying pose, orientation and occlusion of the face; age, gender and ethnicity of the subject; illumination, resolution and quality of the images (e.g. CCTV) and finally the structural components such as glasses, beards, piercing, moustaches, turbans and veils.