Security and Surveillance

Grants and Projects 

Intelligent CCTV for Proactive Surveillance, NSST, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, $634k cash + Over $1 million in-kind from commercial partners 

Summary: 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 funded by NSST in conjunction with established vendors will ensure that the ICCTV research is focused 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.

Demonstrator 

• The SAFE Demonstrator won best Demo at NICTA’s TechFest07 event.
• Also demonstrated at CeBIT (1-3 May 2007, Sydney)
• Also demonstrated to Emergency Management Queensland, 27 April & 23 May 2007