NICTA Queensland developing anti-terror systems

Stan Beer
Monday, 04 September 2006 19:48

Business IT - Security

Government funded R&D center, National ICT Australia (NICTA), has launched an anti-terror and disaster surveillance project, Smart Applications For Emergencies (SAFE). SAFE aims to help save lives and minimise economic impact from natural and man made disasters by improving prevention, detection, prediction and recovery co-ordination.

Advanced video surveillance systems have attracted a great deal of attention since they were used to track the movements of the terrorists responsible for the July 2005 attacks on the London Underground. According to NICTA, the challenge now is to develop systems that can help prevent attacks, rather than just record events as they unfold.

“Extending the capabilities of surveillance systems will help deter activities such as assault and property damage, and help detect terrorist acts before they occur,” said Chris Scott, Research Director of NICTA’s Queensland Laboratory.

NICTA’s SAFE Project will develop and trial demonstrators of advanced surveillance technologies where computer systems assist humans to monitor all surveillance footage all the time, such as is required in train and mass transport security. The aim is to enable operators to quickly and reliably identify specific people or suspicious activities. 

A key component of SAFE is the development of advanced surveillance technologies to help prevent crime and terrorism.  This element of SAFE will be partly funded through an A$634,000 grant from the Australian Government’s Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Research Support for Counter-Terrorism program. NICTA will collaborate with Queensland Transport and other commercial partners on the project.

The demonstrator will feature state-of-the-art video management technologies based on systems used by the US Defense Force. Rather than operators looking at a bank of video monitors, live video surveillance will be presented in the form of a 3D model so operators are immersed in the scene and can quickly move from camera to camera if they need to follow a person or vehicle that is on the move.

The project will also develop reliable person-identification systems that can detect, track and monitor persons of interest. Researchers from NICTA’s Brisbane, Canberra and Sydney laboratories will collaborate on this project, which will be based on reliable recognition software developed by NICTA and its partner universities.