A flexible communications protocol for a distributed surveillance system

Abstract

On-line surveillance for safety and security is a major requirement of public transport and other public places to address the modern demands of mobility in major urban areas and to effect improvements in quality of life and environment protection. The surveillance task is a complex one involving technology, management procedures and people. Visual surveillance based on Closed Circuit Television system is an important part of such systems, but visual processing is not sufficient and the geographical distribution of devices and management has to be taken into account. In this paper we present a surveillance architecture that reflects the distributed nature of the monitoring task and allows for distributed detection processes, not only dealing with visual processing but also with devices such as acoustic signature detection and mobile smart cards, actuators and a range of other possible sensors. The design uses ideas from control engineering and distributed communications networks resulting in a communications architecture based on CORBA and XML messaging. We have shown how to define a generic device/sensor model appropriate for the surveillance task and sufficiently flexible so as to allow for scalability, expansion and customisation of a practical surveillance task. The paper gives sufficient details on the protocols to show how intelligent detection modules can be integrated as part of this kind of system. The system components have been implemented and integrated in two major successful trials in metropolitan railway stations in London and in Paris, as part of a major EU-funded project (PRISMATICA).