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WHERE'S MY BAG? TURNING DIGITAL VIDEO INTO PROACTIVE, REAL TIME OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Ever since some ancient tribe stationed a watchman atop the highest hill to look out for approaching enemies, the human eye has been the most important tool in securing the homeland. He'd scan the horizon, looking for the dust of an approaching horde. When it appeared he'd light a fire, signaling the next hill of the danger. Another fire would be lit and another, until the signal reached the main encampment. The warriors would don their weapons, paint themselves in frightful colors and move out to engage the enemy and keep them away from the community's precious women and children. That worked fine so long as the lone watchman was alive, awake, and paying close enough attention.

In thousands of years, things haven't changed much. Now the watchman sits in front of video displays, poring over multiple camera feeds, searching for that one hint of trouble. If anything, it's harder than ever. Even if he is alive, awake, and paying close enough attention, too much information can obscure the threat. He serves as both monitor and decision-maker, just like his ancient counterpart, and just as vulnerable to human failings.

Intelligent Content Analysis
Now, all that's beginning to change. With the advent of intelligent content analysis, the video system itself can assume the role of detector, while the human operator can devote his energy to making decisions and responding to events.

Intelligent Content Analysis is the utilization of the data contained in digitized video images to analyze changes within a scene, recognize potentially significant events, and automatically alert the operator, all in real time. Homeland security applications include suspicious object detection, unauthorized vehicle alerts, people counting, illegal entry detecting and crowd control, facial recognition, directional motion detection, and asset protection. Operationally, these capabilities can be used for facilities protection, theft prevention, transportation security, and law enforcement.

Because the Intelligent Content Analysis system is a networked solution, it can be integrated with other information technologies and applications, serving as the foundation for assessing and improving the total security environment. Images are information rich. Simply recording them and searching them with the human eye fails to maximize their utility. Digitizing them and applying sophisticated image processing tools allows us to extract far more useful information, by relying on real time monitoring and detecting technologies. Once the system has identified a bona fide concern, a trained responder or command/control operator is notified resulting in quicker decisions and directing resources to where they're needed most.

By integrating the Intelligent Content Analysis system into a broader national, local, or commercial intelligence system, we can start at a critical event and track forward to apprehend perpetrators, bring them to justice, and prevent further attacks. We can also track back to better understand how an attack was executed while improving the likelihood of capturing the terrorist cell, and collaborators, responsible.

Let's look at a hypothetical example of where this technology will take us. At a major U.S. airport, it's Thanksgiving eve. Passenger traffic is at its yearly peak. A tired security guard nears the end of his shift. With 1,282 cameras to keep track of, he and his team of four officers face a real challenge. He glances at his watch. Ten minutes to shift change. It'll be nice to get home to his wife and kids. As he stifles a yawn, the screen in front of him gives off an alarm. The Intelligent Content Analysis system has detected an abandoned bag, in the middle of a crowded terminal, partially obscured behind a pillar. He clicks on the highlighted image, quickly reviewing the last few seconds of tape. It shows a man, on his cell phone, nonchalantly dropping the bag and walking away. The officer looks back to the terminal display. The bag's still there. Immediately, he informs his Chief, who orders the area secured, begins evacuating the terminal, contacts the police and FBI and calls the bomb squad. Suddenly, there's another alarm. The system has counted two people passing through a secure door, bypassing the secure zone. Only one used the required pass card. With another click of his mouse, he replays the recording. Sure enough, he sees one man with an employee badge and a second who looks suspiciously like the man who dropped the bag. He dispatches the nearest officers. Within minutes they've got the suspect in custody, along with an accomplice, a trusted airport employee. They're taken off for interrogation.

In the meantime, the bomb squad arrives and begins the dangerous job of defusing the device. As they work, electronic copies of all of the video and audio, captured using an audio recorder, are on their way to state, local and federal law enforcement agencies. Using the archived video, and the Intelligent Content Analysis system's simple interface, law enforcement is able to track the suspect from the point where he left the bomb, back through the airport to his arrival. Cameras outside the terminal have recorded his arrival by car, with a clear shot of his face. A high-resolution image is stored and sent to the FBI for comparison to a database of known terrorists. The license plate of the car is also recorded, read using an optical character recognition application, and transmitted to the authorities. Within minutes the bomb suspect is identified and the car is traced to a local rental agency. Eventually the credit card used to rent it is tracked back to another terrorist sympathizer. Within days he's arrested. Under interrogation, he and the bomber reveal a terrorist cell funded by sources in the Middle East.

Back at the airport, the bomb is defused and operations gradually return to normal. Still the tension persists into the next day, when the same guard watches the same monitors. Suddenly, there's another alarm. His breath tightens. Yesterday's incident shut down the airport for half a day, costing millions and disrupting air traffic throughout the region. Now, another suspicious bag has been detected. Again, he quickly reviews the video. This time he sees a boy, maybe twelve years old, staring into an ice cream shop, bag at his side. A woman runs into the scene, anxious and irritated, says a few words and motions angrily for him to follow. It looks like he's more worried about his mom's temper than the knapsack on the ground. He runs after her, the bag forgotten.

This time the guard just calls the lost-and-found.

Intelligent Content Analysis systems allow security professionals to fully utilize their video recordings. It creates usable intelligence from raw data for faster, more effective and more efficient responses to homeland security threats. In addition, with every action recorded on video, audio, or both, the incident becomes a valuable training case for improving security operations world-wide.

This article, written by NICE Systems' Ian Ehrenberg, originally appeared in 9-1-1 Magazine. Want to learn more on this topic? Have a specific question? Email the Ian at ian.ehrenberg@nice.com.

LEARN MORE about NICE Systems' solutions for digital video recording and intelligent content analysis. Visit www.nice.com/products/video/nicevision_about.php.