Million-dollar surveillance system for Port of Brisbane

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 16 December 2009 06:27

Business IT - Security

The Federal Government is paying NICTA more than $A1 million to develop an advanced video surveillance system for the Port of Brisbane.

NICTA, the nation's ICT research centre of excellence, will receive $A1.01 million of Federal money over two years to develop an advanced video surveillance system for the Port of Brisbane.

The idea is that the system will serve as a demonstrator for other locations.

"This new funding will help us build an advanced video surveillance system at the Port of Brisbane which could then be replicated in other settings where the protection and safety of people and critical infrastructure is important," said Professor Brian Lovell, NICTA's advanced surveillance project leader.

Although NICTA is headquartered in Sydney, the work will be done at the organisation's Queensland research laboratory, which is under the direction of well-known security researcher Professor Terry Caelli.

The system will incorporate COTS (commercial off the shelf) surveillance tools with NICTA software to improve the quality of video taken in poor conditions and to recognise faces in live video feeds.

"I would like to thank the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet for supporting our development of this adaptable, integrated security and operations management technology," said Caelli.

"We plan to use the funding to develop a world-leading blueprint that will help ports, combat agencies and commercial security companies to secure their personnel and assets," he added.

The funding comes under the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Research Support for National Security Program.