Security cameras are one of the most useful tools for catching criminals in the act and helping you keep track of what is going on in your home or business. But what if they could do more? What if they could sense trouble before it even happened? Computerized surveillance software that is currently under development will let security cameras predict what people are about to do.
This project is being funded by the U.S. government and is being worked on by researches at Carnegie Mellon University. The project’s goal is to make humans obsolete when it comes to analyzing security camera footage. The same technology used in Microsoft’s Kinect and Google’s self-driving cars is being used to make cameras better at identifying certain objects when they are in the camera’s view. Right now, researchers are creating a cognitive engine that lets a computer decide whether or not an object is misbehaving or whether or not it is about to.
The researchers involved say that this technology could be used in both military and civilian situations. It could be used to look out for suspicious actions in airports or other areas that would be at high risk for attacks. The huge advantage that computers have over humans is that a computer can watch everything all at the same time and process the information much more efficiently than any human security team ever could.
This neat little project isn’t quite done yet, but it seems to be coming along quite nicely. No one knows all of the details yet, as some of the conferences regarding the technology require top secret clearance. It’s pretty crazy that the same technology that requires top secret clearance can be played with in your living room using your Xbox.
When this project is complete, it will change camera security forever. Your business or home will be virtually untouchable. Who knows what will come next.