See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224297582

A platform surveillance monitoring system

using image processing for passenger safety in
railway station
CONFERENCE PAPER NOVEMBER 2007
DOI: 10.1109/ICCAS.2007.4406975 Source: IEEE Xplore

CITATIONS

READS

62

3 AUTHORS, INCLUDING:
Changmu Lee
Korea Railroad Research Institute
21 PUBLICATIONS 75 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE

Available from: Changmu Lee

Retrieved on: 17 March 2016

International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems 2007

Oct. 17-20, 2007 in COEX, Seoul, Korea

A Platform Surveillance Monitoring System using Image Processing

for Passenger Safety in Railway Station
Sehchan Oh, Sunghyuk Park and Changmu Lee
Advance EMU Research Team, Korea Railroad Research Institute, Uiwang-City, Gyeonggi-Do, Korea
(Tel : +82-31-460-5745; E-mail: {soh, shpark, cmlee}@krri.re.kr)
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a platform surveillance monitoring system using image processing technology for passenger
safety in railway station. The proposed system monitors almost entire length of the track line in the platform by using multiple
cameras, and determines in real-time whether a human or dangerous obstacle is in the preset monitoring area by using image
processing technology. According to the experimental results, we verity system performance in real condition. Detection of train
state and object is conducted robustly by using proposed image processing algorithm. Moreover, to deal with the accident
immediately, the system provides local station, central control room and train with the video information and alarm message.

Keywords: Surveillance Monitoring, Image Processing, Railway Station, Passenger Safety

1. INTRODUCTION
Passenger safety is a primary concern of railway
system but, it has been urgent issue that dozens of
people are killed every year when they fall off from
train platforms. Recently, advancements in IT have
enabled applying vision sensors to railway
environments, such as CCTV and various camera
sensors.
Recently, to prevent and monitor the safety accident
in railway platform, CCTV(Closed Circuit TV) is
widely used. Currently, CCTV is installed at busy areas
for monitoring and controlling passengers situation
from CCR(Central Control Room) or local station.
However, CCTV is a passive system which provides
limited capability to maintain safety about boarding
platform. In this manner, it is very difficult to recognize
and manage immediately when an emergency situation
occurs.
Therefore, a new concept of platform monitoring
system, which perceives automatically dangerous
factors of passengers on the platform and informs about
the emergency situation, is needed.
The objective of this paper is to propose a platform
surveillance monitoring system using image processing
technology for passenger safety in railway station.
The proposed system, as shown in Fig.1, monitors
almost entire length of track line in the platform using
multiple cameras. Each camera covers 20m length of
track area, and detects in real-time whether human or
dangerous obstacle is in its preset monitoring area by
using image processing technology. When an
emergency situation is detected, the system immediately
provides train driver, CCR and station employees with
both video information and alarm message.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. We
present a system configuration in Chapter 2. In Chapter
3, the detection process for train and object is described.
In Chapter 4, we evaluate the detecting performance of
the proposed system with experimental result in real
subway platform condition. Finally, some concluding
remarks and possible extension of the proposed system
are mentioned in Chapter 5.
978-89-950038-6-2-98560/07/$15 ICROS

Video Cameras
- Each one monitors preset
own monitoring area

Image processing
- Fallen passenger detection

Fallen passenger
Information multicasting
service
- Video information
- An alarm message

Central Control Room

20M
monitoring
area

Station Employee

Train Driver

Fig. 1. Platform Accident and Concept of Platform

Surveillance Monitoring System

2. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION
Fig. 2 shows the system configuration of vision based
railway platform monitoring system. The proposed
system can be divided into information acquisition unit,
fusion unit and information multicasting unit.
The information acquisition unit detects and
perceives dangerous factor, such as fallen passenger,
disastrous fire and so on, in the monitoring area. The
detection processor conducts a series of process i.e. train
detection, object detection, object recognition and object
tracking.
The fusion unit makes more intelligent and
meaningful information by using inputted the monitored
results from every single camera sensor for analyzing
the situation. According to the results from situation
analysis, it generates different alarm messages for local
station and CCR employees and train driver.

394

The information multicasting service unit provides

different clients, such as local station employee, CCR
employee and train driver with corresponding alarm
message including SOP(standard operation procedure)
with video information about the accident situation in
order to deal promptly with emergencies.

Each camera can have different state. If a station has

N number of monitoring cameras and a train is
approaches (i)th camera, as shown in Fig. 4, then 1 to
(i-1)th cameras have a IN state, (i)th camera has a ON
state and (i+1) to (N)th cameras have a OFF state.
Camera 1

Information Acquisition Unit

Camera 2

Camera 3

Camera 4

Camera N

Detection Processor_1
Camera_1

A/D

Tran Detection

Fusion Unit
(Data Fusion &
Situation Analysis)

Object Detection

Train

Object Recognition
Object Tracking

Camera_2

A/D

Train movement
direction

Detection Processor_2

Information Multicasting
Service Unit

Monitoring
Area of Camera 1

ON

IN

OUT

OFF

(Video & Alarm Message)

Camera_N

A/D

Detection Processor_N

Fig. 2. System Configuration

Fig. 4. Train states for each camera.

3. DETECTION PROCESS

To make decision of dangerous factor for fallen

object in monitoring area, it is important to find the
accurate train states in the area for every single camera.
The proposed system uses vision sensor, camera sensor
for finding train states in current monitoring area with
combining the detection results of laser sensors. The
four states of train using camera sensor can be decided
as shown in Figure 5.

The detection process is divided mainly into two

steps i.e. train detection and object/human detection and
recognition. The train detection determines the train
state to prevent a train from being mistaken for a fallen
passenger. The entire detection process for each camera
sensor is described in Fig 3.

Train Detection
Size
OFF-mode?

No

Yes

OFF

Small

No motion

OUT

Large
Motions in
monitoring area

Object Recognition

Motions in
monitoring area

Objection Detection
Emergency?

No

IN

Yes
Motion?

No

Yes

Train Stop&
Deal with the situation

ON

Fig. 5. State diagram for distinguishing each state of

train

Fig. 3. Flowchart of Detection Process

The proposed system has four different transitions.

Transition of one from another state can be defined as
described in Table 2. The system uses motion of train in
each monitoring area to determine the state change. The
transitions OFF to IN and ON to OUT are made when
more than five consecutive motion frames are occurred.
To ignore the noise effect, more than five consecutive
frames are analyzed.

Train Detection
The train state for each camera sensor can be defined
as shown in table 1. The object/human detection process
is performed in OFF modes, i.e. a state train does not
exist in the monitoring area.
TABLE I
TRAIN STATES FOR EACH CAMERA SENSOR

Train States
OFF

No motion

Description
There is no train in monitoring area

IN

Train is approaching

ON

Train is stopped or occupies all area

OUT

Train is pulling out of the monitoring area

395

Object Detection/Traction
The detection results of dangerous factor in platform
monitoring area mainly classified two situations, i.e. a
fallen object in the area and a sudden global change on
the lighting conditions. To determine fallen object the
proposed system considers only movements in
monitoring area in OFF state. Moreover, it detects fallen

object coming from outside of dangerous area by using

backtracking method which tracks movements in
previous frames.
To track object, the system saves object movement
information in previous frames and back tracks objects
when object moves in OUT condition.
TABLE II
TRANSITION OF TRAIN STATES

Transition
OFF-IN
IN-ON
ON-OUT
OUT-OFF

Figure 7. Train area and Dangerous area.

Description
More than five consecutive motion
frames are occurred
More than five consecutive no-motion
frames are occurred
More than five consecutive motion
frames are occurred
More than five consecutive no-motion
frames are occurred

Train movement is defined as a series of process,

frame difference, thresholding, labeling and merging.
Figure 8 shows the experimental result of train
movement.

4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

To verify the performance the proposed system, we

acquired the test sequences at aboveground Sungnae station in
line number 2 and underground Heyhwa station in Seoul
Metro line number 4 of Korea. A frame of the test video
sequence for each station is presented in Fig. 6.

Fig. 8. Test Video Sequences; (a) result of frame

difference; (b) result of thresholding; (c) result of
labeling; (d) result of merging
The experimental results of train detection for the test
sequences, Heyhwa and Sungnae, are presented in
Figure 9. In the figure, blue rectangle means train area,
and redness is dangerous area. Train has relatively large
potion of area in the picture. Therefore, the system
regards changing relatively large potion of scene as
movement of train, and ignores sudden change of light
condition. To minimize noise effects, the system regards
a movement of train when more than five consecutive
frames have been changed. According to the
experimental results, we can see the system completely
detects all of the train states with image processing
technology.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 6. Test Video Sequences; (a) a video sequence of

Heyhwa station, (b) a video sequence of Sungnae
station

B. Object Detection
When an object movement is detected in the
monitoring area, the system can determine whether the
object is fallen from platform or not by using
backtracking technique as presented in Figure 10. In the
figure, blue rectangular line is the area of train and red
polygon represents the dangerous area, and green
rectangular line shows object bound. When object is in
dangerous area, the system determines whether the
movements come from outside dangerous area.
Moreover, the system checks that the object bound is
completely included in the dangerous area. If object
bound is completely included in the dangerous area,

A. Train Detection

To make decision of dangerous factor for fallen

object in monitoring area, it is important to find the
accurate train states in the area for every single camera.
Train and dangerous areas have to be clearly defined.
The preset train area and dangerous area is described in
Figure 7. The blue line box presents train area and red
line box shows dangerous area.

396

using frame difference between current image and

background image. Figure 11 shows an experimental
result of fallen object trace in the dangerous area.

system regards it as a fallen object and changes the

object bound color from green to red.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 11. Experimental results of object trace.

5. CONCOLUSION

(e)

(f)

(g)

(h)

In this paper, we propose a platform surveillance

monitoring system using image processing technology
for passenger safety in railway station. The proposed
system monitors almost entire length of the track line in
the platform by using multiple cameras, and determines
in real-time whether a human or dangerous obstacle is
in the preset monitoring area by using image processing
technology. We verity the system performance with
experimental result in real condition. Detection of train
state and object is conducted robustly by using proposed
image processing algorithm.
Currently, we are pursuing an effective information
transmission system for immediately dealing with the
safety accidents.

Fig. 9. Experimental results of train state transition for

test sequences, Heyhwa and Sungnae stations; (a) and
(b) are OFF state; (c) and (d) are IN state; (e) and (f) are
ON state; (g) and (h) are OUT state

REFERENCES
[1] Y.Sasaki, N.Hiura. Development of Image
Processing Type Fallen Passenger Detecting
System, JR-EAST Technical Review Special
Edition Paper, No. 2, pp.66-72, 2003.
[2] J. Vhzquez, M. Mao, "Detection of moving objects
in railway using . . vision," IEEE Intelligent
Vehicles Symposium University of Parma, Parma,
Italy Jun. 1447, 2004.
[3] N.Paragios and V.Ramesh, A MRF-based
Approach for Real-Time Subway Monitoring,
IEEE CVPR 2001, pp. 1034-1040.
[4] I.Yoda, "Image processing technology for
advanced safety to people in railroad transportation
- For railroad crossing and station platform ," IPSJ
Magazine Vol.48, No.1, pp.10-16, Jan. 2007.
[5] I.Yoda, K.Sakaue. Ubiquitous Stereo Vision for
Controlling Safety on Platforms in Railroad
Station, IEEJ Tr. on Electronics, Information and
Systems, Vol. 124, No. 3, Mar., pp.805-811, 2004.
[6] F.Kruse, S.Milch, H.Rohling. Multi Sensor

(a)

(b)

Fig. 10. Experimental results of object detection; (a) ,

(b) a video sequence of Sungnae station
When the fallen object in the dangerous area has no
motion information, the system traces the object by

397

System
for
ObstacleDetection
in
Train
Applications, Proc. of IEEE Tr., June, pp.42-46,
2003.

398