AI Drone Learns to Detect Brawls

Drones armed with computer vision software could enable new forms of automated skyborne surveillance to watch for violence below. One glimpse of that future comes from UK and Indian researchers who demonstrated a drone surveillance system that can automatically detect small groups of people fighting each other. The seed idea for researchers to develop such a drone surveillance system was first planted in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three and injured hundreds in 2013. It was not until the Manchester Arena bombing that killed 23 and wounded 139--including many children leaving an Ariana Grande concert--when the researchers made some progress. This time, they harnessed a form of the popular artificial intelligence technique known as deep learning.