How Cities Can Turn CCTV into Smart Sensors (Contributed)

Source: Gov Tech Published: Jan, 9 2020 Author: Peter Buccellato

Closed-circuit TVs are everywhere, but limited in what they can do. However, machine-learning software can convert them into proactive tools for a range of public uses, including traffic management and public safety.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a hot topic for smart cities. As planners and urban designers consider how they can integrate IoT into their urban landscape, they may be surprised to find that they already have an extensive sensor network available in the form of closed-circuit television or CCTV. Existing CCTV cameras paired with the latest video analytics software can be used as sophisticated IoT sensors with both audio and video data to help with everything from traffic management to public safety.

CCTV cameras are ubiquitous in most major cities, primarily used for forensic analysis of events. In other words, they work after the fact because the laborious task of monitoring thousands of cameras in real time is far too expensive, and raises questions about privacy and surveillance. Where they prove useful is in post-event reconstruction of what may have led up to and caused an event, such as a traffic accident or crime.

The industry has been trying for several decades to tackle the real-time problems of CCTV using software and artificial intelligence (AI) with limited success. Video analytics can be programmed to recognize specific objects or sequences, but this has a narrow range of application. For instance, in cases where a known object presents itself with little variation, a camera could read a bar code, a license plate, or even recognize faces. The problem in most urban environments is that the scenes captured by CCTV are too complex and the behaviors too unpredictable.