Concept
EWISA Land Border Surveillance System Concept
A surveillance system is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated entity that is delineated by its spatial and temporal boundaries, surrounded and influenced by its environment, described by its structure and purpose and expressed in its functioning.
The core of the EWISA system is introduced in the figure below, and is comprised of two fundamental components which are:
• Video Analytics Component (VAC), fed by Video sources.
• Data Fusion Component, followed by the Intelligence Analysis Reporting, fed by the VAC information, other sensors/systems and other Databases.
All collected information is stored in a database based on automatic meta-data generation, such that data can be searched in a variety of ways, including at minimum:
• Time
• Date
• Location of collection
1. Video Analytics Component (VAC)
Video Analytics is a generic term and refers to the capability of automatically analysing video to detect and determine temporal and spatial events, using algorithm technology to provide two critical capabilities:
• Real-time analysis of video for immediate detection of events of interest
• Analysis of pre-recorded video for the purpose of extracting events and data from the recorded video.
Relying on Video Analytics to automatically monitor camera footage and alert for events of interest is in many cases much more effective than reliance on a human operator, which is a costly resource with limited alertness and attention. Furthermore, Video Analytics algorithms are implemented to analyse recorded video, a task that is challenging and time consuming for a human operator, especially in cases whereby a large amount of video must be reviewed. Through rapid analysis of recorded video, VAC can pinpoint an event in recorded video, and retrieve the relevant video segment from the stored video.
2. Data Fusion- Intelligent Analysis Reports
A useful definition of data fusion is “the process of integration of multiple data and knowledge representing the same real-world object into a consistent, accurate and useful representation”.
It is desirable that a border protection system should be able to provide a single fused analysis of an event. Information from individual sensors and sensor systems should be aggregated consistently, e.g. so that a single event results in a single alert to avoid overloading system operators. Additionally, fusing consistent information from multiple sensors and other databases can be used to improve track continuity: this is useful both for human observation and also for automatic pattern-of-life analysis. Data fusion can also be used to improve the quality of information presented to an operator.
3. Surveillance Supporting Equipment
In order to achieve a practical implementation of Video Analysis solutions and Intelligence Analysis Reporting, other supporting equipment need to be deployed along with Video Analysis components, either to facilitate the provision of coherent inputs to the VA system, or just to guarantee an adequate performance of the overall surveillance deployment
Under the EWISA project, mobile or deployable platforms will be integrated supporting the VAC to support the EWISA proof of concept. EWISA will not deal with stand-alone technology providing new capabilities. It will rather validate (in terms of its capacity to meet the requirements set by public authorities) the integration of novel solutions, proposed by technology developers, into the current/legacy surveillance infrastructure.