Herself’s Artificial Intelligence

When the 2008 Olympic Games kick off in Beijing next year, organizers will be using a sophisticated computer system to scan video images of city streets looking for everything from troublemakers to terrorists.The IBM system, called the Smart Surveillance System, or S3, uses analytic tools to index digital video recordings and then issue real-time alerts when certain patterns are detected. It can be used to warn security guards when someone has entered a secure area or keep track of cars coming in and out of a parking lot. [ read more IBM System to Scan Streets at Beijing Olympics]

IBM’s system has a camera watching a scene, the video is analyzed in real time and behavior that is outside the statistical norm sends a warning to whoever needs it. Data is also analyzed and tagged with xml as it is read for easier retrieval.

Big Blue is far from the only company working on such software. BRS Labs is developing surveillance software which adaptively learns what is right and wrong in a scene.

We’ve had camera appearing and multiplying faster than any of us can keep track.  But there are more cameras than watchers.  In order for the cameras to be useful we need software like the red-light camera software that can act on its own.  But there lies a whole new set of problems.  How far should the camera software be allowed to act?  And how far outside the norm does your behavior need to be to raise alarms and what should be done with people who set off these alarms?

More information:
IBM Smart Surveillance System ( Home page for the project including several papers, press releases and more information. )

Papers:
Automatic Video Surveillance
Automatic Annotation of Humans in Surveillance Video Recordings