Standard Science Research Institute develops CCTV that can check the face from a distance of 60m
[Security News Kim Sung-mi] In April 2013, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) publicly sought a prime suspect three days after the Boston Marathon bombings. The suspect was then arrested 10 days after the bombing.
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| ▲ 60m face recognition CCTV developed by KRISS |
The FBI was able to catch the culprit so quickly because of CCTV, but at the time, the FBI had to analyze thousands of CCTVs installed near the event site. This is due to the limitation of the CCTV's face identification distance.
If the camera was capable of identifying the face of a person standing at a distance, the FBI could have caught the culprit faster. However, catching the culprits quickly using high-definition CCTV footage is expected to become a reality soon.
This is because Dr. Choi Man-yong's team at the Korea Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) Security Cognitive Technology recently succeeded in developing an advanced CCTV system that can track people 60 meters away and check their faces.
This CCTV consists of three cameras and computers in one body, so it is easy to identify faces filmed from a distance even at night or in rainy conditions.
CCTV cameras are equipped with three types of cameras: △ visible light camera △ thermal infrared camera △ mobile tracking camera to carry out their duties. First of all, the fixed visible light camera installed at the top records large areas in HD quality. The camera records the images up to 60 meters away from the angle of the surveillance screen (hereinafter referred to as the surveillance angle).
The second camera is a thermal infrared camera that monitors the same area as the visible camera and detects a person through the temperature of the object and acquires position coordinates when an object appears.
The movement tracking camera installed at the bottom photographs people's face information up to 60m in UHD quality with left and right rotation and magnification functions according to the location coordinates secured by the thermal infrared camera.
Provides information on people within 60m in HD quality
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, there are about 560,000 CCTVs in public institutions. The number of CCTVs in Korea increase even more. However, it is rare that a criminal's face can be identified among CCTVs distributed in Korea. This is because the face recognition distance is short.
However, CCTV developed by KRISS shows person information within a distance of 60m in HD quality, enabling face recognition. In addition, CCTV is characterized by low data loss because it processes and stores data through the main computer and then processes only a small amount of face information files (three per target person) as if sending an e-mail.
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| ▲ 60m 거리에 있는 사람을 촬영해 확대한 영상 |
The main computer has a storage capacity of 1TB, which can store 500,000 photos of 2MB per photo. It also has a function of automatically tracking and enlarging up to 30 people per minute to convert facial information into a database of photos.
In addition, the surveillance area is more than 64 times larger than full-HD CCTVs, so it can replace a large number of CCTVs, and it does not require expensive construction costs such as optical cables, thereby realizing high economic effects.
If multiple people appear at the same time, the movement tracking camera quickly photographs the person's face in the order in which it appears in the monitoring area, analyzes the face information, and if it is not the front face, the movement path is tracked and photographed until the face is seen.
If you have not obtained face information about a specific person with a large number of people appearing on the screen, you will first take a picture of another person and then return to resume filming. Since it takes 1 second to obtain one person's face information and 1 second to move the lens to take another person's picture, you can identify up to 30 people's face information per minute.
Increase recognition with thermal infrared cameras
One of the biggest features of the CCTV is that it is equipped with a thermal infrared camera that identifies an object by temperature, allowing the camera to recognize a person well. The KRISS researchers came up with the idea that it can increase the possibility of recognition based on a person's body temperature (34-37℃).
Thermal infrared cameras are characterized by being able to determine whether a person is a person with 95% accuracy even under adverse conditions such as night, fog, and rain. This product can be used for crime prevention, airport security, security surveillance, military alert surveillance, access surveillance, and monitoring major facilities and is expected to be commercialized next year.
For the commercialization of this technology, KRISS signed a 300 million won technology transfer contract with Hansun Engineering, a video surveillance company, and Hansun Engineering plans to establish a research institute-type subsidiary to commercialize it.
In addition, a domed 60-meter CCTV and a 128-meter CCTV that is strong at night will be introduced around March next year.
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| ▲ Kim Soo-un, a researcher at KRISS |
Kim Soo-un, a KRISS researcher who participated in the study, said, "We will improve the problems of existing CCTVs and quickly commercialize security surveillance technology that can identify people at night, bad weather, and long distances and check multiple face information at once."
