Smart Cameras

Smart cameras refer to the new-generation surveillance cameras with behavior-filtering capabilities; they are linked to software that can help the camera identify suspicious behavior. Thus, the person in charge of security need only look at videos when smart cameras send him an alert. This minimizes lost man-hours on monitoring perfectly normal activities and facilitates timely emergency responses.

Behavior Classification Programs

There are smart cameras being developed and experimented upon that involves observing, tracking behavior and identifying such behavior as either normal/routine or suspicious/dangerous. They do this with the help of behavior tracking programs.

If suspicious activity is detected, the camera sends out an alert then continues to track the subject. When the subject falls out of range, the smart camera then signals another smart camera to pick up the subject’s trail and continue tracking. The camera records the events it is monitoring and sends a continuous stream of video data to the person in charge. This data can be sent out to a mobile or handheld monitoring device through the internet.

The person in charge can then immediately look at the video and determine whether the behavior being tracked is truly dangerous or not. If it is the former, the smart camera can be relied upon to send real-time video to the security personnel and even the police.

Suspicious Behavior

The smart camera determines what suspicious behavior is according to the algorithms with which it has been programmed. Therefore, ‘suspicious behavior’ varies from situation to situation.

For instance, the suspicious behavior in school will include children climbing fences, children brawling and throwing punches at one another, men forcibly abducting children, people coming and going at strange hours, etc. On the other hand, suspicious behavior in airports would usually include baggage left behind, loitering, people suddenly dropping down on the ground, etc. Behavior tracking software, however, would universally tag as suspicious chase scenes (a car suddenly speeding up, an individual running at full speed with or without people chasing him), behavior involving guns and explosives (an individual or individuals toting firearms, explosions, etc.) and perhaps, even masked people.

The behavior tracking software programmers compile a list of possible suspicious behavior. After that, they record and enact all possible behavior and then tag each behavior as either suspicious or not. A recording of the environment is also taken so that they can be ignored and the cameras can focus on movement and commotion. The software is also usually programmed to tag as suspicious any activity that is out of synch with the routine.

Issues with Smart Cameras

There’s a wide range of possible behavior which may not be part of the suspicious behavior database; in this case, the smart camera would be useless in tracking suspicious behavior. Furthermore, there are also behavioral patterns that may be hard to classify. For instance, the software may have a hard time distinguishing a friendly punch from a truly violent one or a person running to catch the train or fleeing after commission of a crime.