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January 06, 2007
Smart Cameras at John Hopkins
From the Baltimoresun.com:
Some useful information on the smart camera system at John Hopkins University. Back in May 2005, I noted this camera system. The system relies on 89 cameras. The software is by Cernium and displays 19 scenes on a large screen in the command center. It is also sends alerts from 18 different behaviors including "people moving very fast or loitering; cars that stop suddenly or drive too fast; crowds that gather or disperse; unattended objects and people who fall". The article provides a number of examples of how these alerts have proved useful, such as detecting loitering:
A lone man is looking up and down the street, apparently waiting for someone. A pickup truck drives up. The man says something to the driver, gets in and they drive off. Minutes later, a block away, a woman is robbed at gunpoint by two men who speed off in a pickup. No one at the scene can describe the truck to campus security officers or to Baltimore police.
Hopkins' security system caught the robbery suspects on a video camera on Lovegrove Street. The software registered the man's behavior and the late hour, and alerted the security officer on duty in the command center. The view down Lovegrove was singled out by the computer amid the incoming imagery from 89 campus security cameras. It popped automatically onto the officer's screen, with the man's image highlighted in a yellow box. She quickly zoomed in and recorded images of the suspect, the truck and its license plate.
After the victim reported the robbery, the tag number led police within hours to a borrowed truck and the suspect, who had a police record. The victim picked him out of a photo lineup. He was arrested a few days later, linked to a second crime and charged with both.
"If we didn't have this video system, or she didn't focus on him, he would have gotten away," said Edmund Skrodzki, executive director for security for Hopkins' Homewood campus. "One person can't monitor 89 screens. You need help with it, and behavioral recognition provides that assistance."
- In addition to the Lovegrove loiterer, the system has alerted security to a juvenile as he attempted to steal a motorbike, leading to an arrest.
- Another youth was spotted, tracked by cameras and arrested after spray-painting graffiti on campus buildings.
- A nighttime bicycle thief was confronted after another alert brought nearby security officers to the scene. The crook dropped his bolt cutters and ran off, but the bike was recovered, Skrodzki said.
- Other potential criminals were warned off because of automated alerts as they cased a sorority house, or tried doorknobs and car handles near campus.
- Campus bike thefts dropped from 25 during the 2005 fall semester to three last fall. Overall crime was down 20 percent in 2006. And Skrodzki credits the behavioral recognition software for providing a critical assist.
Posted by rshah at January 6, 2007 08:50 PM
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