The pioneering Manufacturing Technology Centre near Coventry has partnered with intelligent video experts One Big Circle to develop a safety system which can spot anti-social behaviour or emergency incidents on station platforms.
The partnership has been created to respond to an SBRI Challenge from Innovate UK and Network Rail, exploring the applications of Video Analytics and Machine Learning in a station environment. There is an opportunity to automate the detection of certain security concerns, to assist with quicker and more comprehensive video review. This would provide an efficient alternative to the existing surveillance systems that require human operators to constantly monitor large amounts of video data to spot safety issues in an ever-changing environment.
Together, One Big Circle and the MTC aim to develop a monitoring programme that utilises Machine Learning algorithms to analyse video data capture and automatically detect and flag safety concerns in real time. Incidents that could pose security issues include abandoned baggage, unusual dwell time, violence, and complex crowd dynamics. The ability to rapidly notify staff of developing issues will improve emergency response times, transforming CCTV systems into advanced security monitoring systems that are driven by AI.
One Big Circle will build on their intelligent video and AI experience that has been developed through railway monitoring works using their Automated Intelligent Video Review system (AIVR). AIVR automatically captures and uploads video data to aid in monitoring of the rail infrastructure. In a partnership with Transport for Wales, a Machine Learning model has been developed to detect risks posed by vegetation in the lineside environment.