Smarter terrorist detection
The world has seen an increase in terrorism in recent years. Also, certain features make urban environments particularly vulnerable to such attacks. The EU-funded PROACTIVE (Predictive reasoning and multi-source fusion empowering anticipation of attacks and terrorist actions in urban environments) project developed a new surveillance system. The innovations combined multiple sensor technologies with an intelligent reasoning platform, thereby supporting detection of terrorist activity. Results consisted of several new system components. The first was a visual scene analysis module. The development combined arrays of cameras over large local areas, and was able to relay the information globally as required. Videos of captured data were used in real time to highlight suspicious activities and offline as a searchable video archive. A second new module included ad hoc networking solutions. The innovation included network self-configuration processes, allowing smooth interface with other nodes or external networks. The team demonstrated the automatic network set-up process. Software formed a network topology able to transport various types of data content from sensors. PROACTIVE also created a terrorist reasoning kernel, consisting of short-, medium- and long-term automated reasoning elements. Another outcome consisted of an unmanned aerial vehicle. A video helped visitors experience the vehicle's flight. The system's graphical user interface provided decision-makers with a common operational picture having augmented situational awareness. The subsystem supported operational management of events. The project's data fusion engine utilised numerous open standards for definition of data models and processing classes. Thus, the system managed information efficiently and allowed interoperability among various compliant systems. Finally, the team developed an instrumented mobile node. The component provided a communication channel among 'instrumented policemen' and a central monitoring system. The subsystem was successfully demonstrated. As a result of the new PROACTIVE technologies, emergency services may be better equipped to detect suspicious activities. Hence, cities and citizens will be safer from terrorist attacks.
Keywords
Terrorist detection, reasoning algorithms, unmanned aerial vehicle, urban environments, PROACTIVE
