An intelligent distributed surveillance system for public transport
We outline the main features of a distributed surveillance system developed for public transport applications, primarily for metropolitan railway networks, as part of the PRISMATICA project. The system has been developed using detailed studies of the needs of end-users, including managers, control room operators and passengers. This has been done by investigating not only actual events that need to be detected, but also situations that lead to reduced levels of perceived security (such as the feeling of isolation in particular environments). Typical control room operations have been studied in detail, and the system design has been inspired by, and matches, the distributed nature of the surveillance tasks, in terms of both geographical distribution and the variety of information processes. Variability and scalability has been dealt with by designing and implementing a generic XML-messaging system (so that it is the devices themselves that determine how they are controlled and what sort of information they can provide) operating on a CORBA-based architecture. This has allowed the integration of a range of detection systems including video processing, audio processing and radio-based detection of mobile panic buttons (as part of a smart card). The system has been tried successfully in two major environments: the London and Paris underground railway systems. (5 pages)