1st International ICST Conference on Forensic Applications and Techniques in Telecommunications, Information and Multimedia

Research Article

Searching in space and time: a system for forensic analysis of large video repositories

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/e-forensics.2008.2713,
        author={Anton van den Hengel and Rhys Hill and Henry Detmold and Anthony Dick},
        title={Searching in space and time: a system for forensic analysis of large video repositories},
        proceedings={1st International ICST Conference on Forensic Applications and Techniques in Telecommunications, Information and Multimedia},
        publisher={ACM},
        proceedings_a={E-FORENSICS},
        year={2010},
        month={5},
        keywords={Surveillance Forensics Distributed systems},
        doi={10.4108/e-forensics.2008.2713}
    }
    
  • Anton van den Hengel
    Rhys Hill
    Henry Detmold
    Anthony Dick
    Year: 2010
    Searching in space and time: a system for forensic analysis of large video repositories
    E-FORENSICS
    ACM
    DOI: 10.4108/e-forensics.2008.2713
Anton van den Hengel1,*, Rhys Hill1,*, Henry Detmold1,*, Anthony Dick1,*
  • 1: Australian Centre for Visual Technologies, School of Computer Science, University of Adelaide
*Contact email: henge@cs.adelaide.edu.au, rhys@cs.adelaide.edu.au, henry@cs.adelaide.edu.au, ard@cs.adelaide.edu.au

Abstract

The use of surveillance cameras to monitor public buildings and urban areas is becoming increasingly widespread. Each camera delivers a continuous stream of video data, which, once archived, is a valuable source of information for forensic analysis. However, current video analysis tools are primarily based on searching backwards and forwards in time at a single location (i.e. camera), which does not account for events or people of interest that change location over time. In this paper we describe a practical system for tracking a target backwards and forwards in both space and time, effectively following a feature of interest as it moves within and between cameras in a surveillance network. This provides a video analysis tool that is target-centred rather than camera-centred, and thus allows rapid access to the footage that matters for forensic analysis.