Computer vision algorithms pick out petty crime in CCTV footage

A computer vision system has been developed that detects suspicious behaviour in CCTV footage as it happens. Researchers involved in the P-REACT project, which is the work of a consortium of European companies and organisations and is partly funded by a grant from the European Commission, say the surveillance technology could help catch criminals in the act and relieve police of "digital evidence overload" by highlighting video clips most likely to be relevant to investigations. "If a camera at a gas station picks up suspicious activity, the video footage will be sent to the cloud, people at the gas station will be alerted, and nearby cameras will be told to look out for the criminals too," says project coordinator Juan Arraiza at Vicomtech, a research foundation in San Sebastian, Spain. Its algorithms have been trained on sample scenes of people fighting, chasing someone or snatching a bag.