security
Using Tech Eyes To
Spot Terrorists
The terror attacks in Mumbai have highlighted the need for better surveillance
in our cities. Technology could play a major role here
 L. Venkata Subramaniam
T
he terrorist strikes in Mumbai
have exposed the vulnerability
of our cities. It is essential that
areas like hotels, train stations, bus
stations, airports, markets and malls
be provided with better surveillance to
enable authorities to monitor and catch
suspicious characters.
The Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus
(CST) at Mumbai has over three mil-
lion passengers passing through it
every day. Most of these people, al-
most all of the time, perform normal
activities like buying tickets, boarding
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and getting off trains, buying maga-
zines, talking on mobile phones and
so on. Statistically, an abnormal event
like the terrorist attack happens once
in many millions of activities. But
that does not lessen its impact or the
need to spot it and nip it in the bud
because, although rare, such an event
can cause immeasurable damage to
life and property.
Is it possible to add more ‘eyes’ to
the city? Is it possible to use closed-
circuit television (CCTV) and other
imaging technologies to catch terror-
ists before they strike? Is it possible
to use machine vision technology
to automatically detect abnormal
activities in the images that have
been captured and alert the police?
The answer to all these questions is
‘yes’, provided the right technology
is in place.
An imaging and storage
challenge
Each public place has its peculiari-
ties. In some, it is easy to place CCTV
equipment, especially indoors, where
the cameras can be mounted on the
walls. In others, like open markets and
streets, it may be necessary to erect
structures for placing the cameras.
Of course, this might need a large
number of cameras. For instance,
a place like CST has 18 platforms
and many common areas. Covering
each platform will require at least 30
cameras, and the common areas will
require about 250 cameras. So, in all,
CST will require about 800 cameras to
cover it fully.
In open spaces like markets, teth-
ered helium balloons, floating in the
air, fitted with cameras can be used.
One such balloon at a height of a few
hundred metres fitted with multiple
high-resolution cameras can cover the
entire market very easily.
It is important to make sure that
cameras capture good quality images
in different conditions like daylight,
night light, cloud-covered sky or heavy
rain. The need is for an imaging tech-
nology that has good resolutions under
different imaging conditions, and is
inexpensive and robust enough to be
used outdoors and indoors.
Then there is the matter of storage.
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security
One hour of video from a camera can
easily take up to 30 GB (gigabyte) of
storage space, so one would need to
use image compression techniques
to keep storage requirements at a
minimum. However, the compres-
sion should not result in too much
loss of clarity in the images, otherwise
the very point of storing the images
would be lost. What’s more, these im-
age compression techniques need
to be evaluated with CCTV images
under different real-life lighting and
imaging conditions. Similarly, while a
number of imaging technologies exist,
it is still a challenge to determine the
right solutions for camera placement
and lighting.
The brain behind the eyes
Monitoring of CCTV images has
traditionally been done by human
observers, who often monitor mul-
tiple screens simultaneously. As the
number of cameras increases, it will
be necessary to increase the number
of human observers as well. However,
studies have shown that after the first
40 minutes, the alertness of the human
observer falls drastically. Hence, au-
tomated solutions to recognise events
that seem out of the ordinary, need to
be developed.
Machine vision technology is ma-
turing and today, a computer program
can automatically detect stationary
and non-stationary objects in an image.
For example, people, luggage, trolleys,
dustbins, kiosks and other objects in
images can be automatically identified
by a computer program. A computer
program can even detect unattended
luggage with reasonable accuracy
—an important factor considering
The need is for an
imaging technology that
has good resolutions
under different imaging
conditions, and is
inexpensive and robust
enough to be used
outdoors and indoors.
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Output of an image processing program which has identified all the pieces of luggage in the frame
that bombs are often left in the form of
luggage, transistors, etc. A computer
can also detect someone carrying a
suspicious-looking object. A human
observer can be alerted to look at such
images, verify that the system is cor-
rect and notify security personnel on
the ground.
It is possible to match the faces and
gaits of people with those of known
suspects, as well as identify suspicious
behaviour like nervous or jerky move-
ments by individuals, which can be
indicative of a person who is about to
carry out an attack.
It is essential that security experts
work with the engineers writing such
programs to define the scenarios of
interest. The computer program needs
to be given examples of normal events
so that it can report anything that does
not fit into this pattern.
Start-ups for security
But while security in public places
needs to be stepped up, such security
should not be disruptive. At CST, the
authorities rejected a plan to frisk
every person entering the premises—it
was impractical to frisk over three mil-
lion passengers every day. Security has
to be effective but at the same time it
should be unobtrusive as far as possi-
ble. Just placing guards at entrances or
even frisking is not a solution in itself.
We need to put technology to effective
use and collect as much actionable
data as possible to pre-empt terrorist
strikes.
ASSOCHAM expects that the se-
curity business in India will become a
Rs 500 billion industry in the next four
years. Much of this money will go into
deploying technologies that can effec-
tively fill the security gaps.
This represents an opportunity
for technopreneurs to help make our
lives safer. The first challenge is to
reduce the cost of hardware. Today,
a night-vision camera costs Rs 10,000,
while a camera for normal lighting
costs Rs 5000. These costs need to be
brought down through innovative use
of photo equipment and semiconduc-
tors. The next challenge is to develop
better machine-vision software. As it
is not possible to monitor all images
manually, machine-vision algorithms
for automatic surveillance need to be
developed and deployed to aid the
human observers. As in all matters
these days, terrorism needs to be tack-
led by a blend of human effort and
technology. 
Reproduced from Jan. 2009 issue of i.t. magazine;
the author likes to learn about and write on tech-
nologies that touch our lives
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