UCL Discovery

Abstract

On-line surveillance to improve safety and security is a major requirement for the management of public transport networks and other public places. The surveillance task is a complex one involving people, management procedures and technology. The paper describes an architecture that takes into account the distributed nature of the detection processes and the need to allow for different type of devices and actuators. The work was part of a major European initiative on intelligent transport systems. Because of the dominant nature of CCTV (Closed Circuit TV) in surveillance, the paper describes in detail a computer vision module used in the system and its particular ability to detect situations of interest in busy conditions. The system components have been implemented, integrated and tested in real metropolitan railways environments and they are considered to be a first step towards providing ambient intelligence in such complex scenarios. Results are presented that not only deal with detection performance but also on the perception of people who used the system on its effectiveness and potential impact.