2012-03-26

New Advanced Surveillance Camera System

New surveillance camera can search 36 million faces for matches in one second



(PhysOrg.com) -- A new surveillance camera by Hitachi Kokusai Electric can look at footage that contains an image of someone, either still or video, and then search other video or still images on file for other instances of that same face. In so doing, it can search, process and display up to thirty six million faces in just one second. Each hit is displayed immediately in its native format, i.e. still or video, in thumbnail form, which its makers say, allows the camera to display the actions of a person prior to, or even after, being seen by the surveillance camera. All they need do is click on the thumbnail to watch the video play.




Surveillance Camera System Searches Through 36 Million Faces In One Second - DigInfo TV - Tech News Videos From Japan | The latest technology, products, gadgets and scientific research direct from Tokyo

The search results are displayed immediately, showing thumbnail images of potential candidates. When a thumbnail is selected, the associated recorded surveillance footage can be viewed, so users can quickly review the persons actions before and after the image was taken.

"This high speed is achieved by detecting faces through image recognition when the footage from the camera is recorded, and also by grouping similar faces."
With this system, it's assumed that faces are turning within around 30 degrees in the horizontal and vertical directions from the camera, and the faces are at least 40 x 40 pixels in size.

"We think this system is suitable for customers that have a relatively large-scale surveillance system, such as railways, power companies, law enforcement, and large stores."