What exactly is a Safe City initiative?

Since Big Data has taken over so many areas of our daily lives, such as scientific research, online shopping or sentiment analysis in social media departments or government agencies, those in charge of large cities have been looking for ways for this technology to help them control their metropolises. These are becoming larger and more complex to manage, with a number of additional challenges to overcome:

 

  • Limitations on budgets and available resources
  • Improve the safety and quality of life of citizens
  • Optimization of the use of police, firefighters and other municipal agencies.

The main challenge, in order to cope with the above, is to bring all information channels together in a unified command center, from which to make informed decisions when something out of the ordinary happens. But thanks to today’s communications networks, connecting multiple systems is no longer a problem. And those responsible for law enforcement, fire, health, public transport and even cleaning and garbage collection need access to that command center, to coordinate their actions and not overlap resources from different services, as they may be needed elsewhere.

Among the many information gathering systems available to municipal governments or city councils are traffic and security cameras, IoT (Internet of Things) sensors of various types for pollution, traffic, noise, etc., as well as communications between the different municipal bodies for security, health, etc.

Data centralization is essential

All of this data set holds tremendous potential if properly combined and brought together in a single joint control system, allowing conclusions to be drawn on the fly, to mobilize the necessary agencies (and only the necessary ones) in each case. These command centers are increasingly being used in modern cities in the “Smart City” areas we have mentioned, as they enable faster, more accurate and more efficient responses.

Videoma Intelion, from ISID, is a flexible platform provides just that: an integration with existing data collection systems (cameras, audio and IoT sensors), adding advanced video and audio analytics so that the system handles 24/7 surveillance based on specified parameters, and alerts the appropriate personnel when something happens that is out of what has been specified as normal.

All this in a single interface, which brings together information from all systems connected to Intelion, providing a unified view of all data. Intelion’s notification system is capable of sending messages via SMS, Whatsapp or other communication systems to the personnel defined for each case. This avoids the permanent surveillance of cameras or similar, freeing up personnel to perform more valuable tasks for the city or municipality.

Intelligent Alarms

One of the big problems of cities, above a certain size, is the number of personnel required for the surveillance tasks of the security systems implemented, such as cameras or environmental sensors, traffic density, etc. to detect anomalous situations in which it is necessary to intervene. Thanks to artificial intelligence, not only is the workload of these people and the number of personnel required for the tasks reduced, but the functionality of the system can be significantly expanded. Some examples are:

  • Facial recognition of people with a criminal record around schools, high schools or people with restraining orders.
  • License plate search through cameras and time to obtain starting points of a vehicle.
  • Recognition of stolen objects in surveillance camera images.
  • Identification of specific sounds (such as explosions, accidents, etc.).
  • Alterations in traffic flow
  • Sudden changes in the weather situation

As can be seen, it is very difficult for a human being to have the capacity to control all these variables and make appropriate decisions without prior filtering and condensation of the available information. This is the mission of the “Safe City” systems, which are programmed on the basis of specific rules for each city and thus automate the ingestion of information from hundreds or thousands of channels, to identify only those situations that require human intervention.

All this in a single interface, which brings together the information from all the systems connected to Intelion, providing a unified view of all the data. The Intelion notification system is capable of sending messages by SMS, Whatsapp or other communication systems to the personnel that have been defined for each case. In this way, the permanent surveillance of cameras or similar is avoided, freeing up these personnel to carry out tasks of greater value to the city or municipality.

The future of Safe City systems

As we have already mentioned, the specific advantages depend on each case of application, but the common ones of using one of these safe city systems are: the optimization of budgets and municipal resources, an improvement in citizen safety and quality of life in general, as well as allowing permanent visibility of the status quo of the metropolis.

But the options do not end there: by integrating Safe City systems with traffic light control, fast lanes can be opened in the event of natural disasters, to allow access to the scene for law enforcement or health services, or to create free lanes to hospitals in the area. Routes for the postal service or garbage collection can be optimized based on traffic or the amount of garbage detected by cameras, resulting in savings in fuel, emissions and vehicle wear and tear. The possibilities are virtually endless, and at the core of all these systems is always an AI platform such as Intelion, which provides the flexibility of integration and adaptation needed to evolve with the city and its security requirements.