Intelligent Video Surveillance Systems (eBook)

Belonging to the wider academic field of computer vision, video
analytics has aroused a phenomenal surge of interest since the
current millennium. Video analytics is intended to solve the
problem of the incapability of exploiting video streams in real
time for the purpose of detection or anticipation. It involves
analyzing the videos using algorithms that detect and track objects
of interest over time and that indicate the presence of events or
suspect behavior involving these objects.

The aims of this book are to highlight the operational attempts of
video analytics, to identify possible driving forces behind
potential evolutions in years to come, and above all to present the
state of the art and the technological hurdles which have yet to be
overcome. The need for video surveillance is introduced through two
major applications (the security of rail transportation systems and
a posteriori investigation). The characteristics of the videos
considered are presented through the cameras which enable capture
and the compression methods which allow us to transport and store
them. Technical topics are then discussed - the analysis of
objects of interest (detection, tracking and recognition),
"high-level" video analysis, which aims to give a
semantic interpretation of the observed scene (events, behaviors,
types of content). The book concludes with the problem of
performance evaluation.