The concentration of the population in cities is a global fact that, according to projections made by the United Nations, will become increasingly noticeable. Experts estimate that, by the year 2050, the world population will reach 9.7 billion people and? two thirds of them will live in cities. How to guarantee the sustainability, security and success of an economy in an urbanized planet that is increasingly full of human beings?
humans?
As a common response, the concept of “smart cities” (in those places where scientific and technological development allows it, a detail impossible to forget). A smart city is, roughly speaking, an urban area that uses Information and communication technologies to support the city, guarantee transactions of all kinds and, currently a critical issue, improve security.
This last point is crucial wherever you look at it. If certain Latin American countries have high rates of street crime, others face the threat of terrorist attacks and the outbreak of shootings and attacks by lone wolves that appear suddenly in schools, universities, and hyper-inhabited outdoor spaces.
The conjunction of tools Artificial Intelligence (AI), video surveillance cameras and analysis of data would allow not only control in record times those violations of citizen security, but even prevent them. New technologies allow relevant data to be collected, processed, analyzed and highlighted for investigators of a criminal act.
The issue is so urgent that the Argentine engineer Gastón Addati designed a project that involves video surveillance technology and artificial intelligence to be able, in real time, to analyze what is happening in United States schools and even raise an alert that an attack could be about to occur. That is, prevention and action almost in real time.
Such a proposal earned him residency in just one week. With the help of a specialized law firm (Vivanco & Vivanco) Addatti obtained his talent visa, or extraordinary abilities, in record time.
Data to prevent
AI collects and interprets connections and patterns in financial records, images, video camera clips, social media data, public records, news feeds, and other open sources. Such is the need to create citizen security systems based on technological tools that European Union opened a contest between the years 2020 and December 2022 for subsidize projects linked to the prevention of crime and attacks of various kinds.
“He S4AllCities project, financed with European funds, aims to make infrastructures, services, ICT systems and the Internet of Things in cities more resilient, while promoting the exchange of information and data between the agents responsible for the security. To achieve this, it will integrate advanced technological and organizational solutions. The system will focus on risk-based smart green space security management, cybersecurity shields, tracking of suspicious activities and behaviors, identification of unattended objects, real-time estimation of cyber-physical risks at multiple locations and the activation of measures for effective crisis management.”
What is of most concern in the EU is reducing the threat of terrorist attacks. “To address this problem, project members focused primarily on soft targets, areas where perpetrators can cause significant damage, injury and loss of life with relative ease. Such targets include large public spaces where crowds congregate, such as plazas, shopping malls, places of worship, stadiums.”
On the one hand, AI helps through the analysis of large amounts of data. For example, AI can analyze criminals’ movement patterns and the times when they usually commit crimes to anticipate and prevent future crimes. Furthermore, surveillance cameras become intelligent tools and are no longer used as passive elements. The cameras can be equipped with facial and behavioral recognition algorithmsallowing them to identify people and detect suspicious behavior.
It is also possible to use AI to improve emergency response to dangerous situations. For example, law enforcement can use AI to analyze data in real time and determine the best way to respond to an emergency situation. This way, they can quickly dispatch the necessary resources to protect citizens and minimize damage.
The project of an Argentine
All this was taken and taken into account in the Addati design. “The first thing the system does is identify people,” explains the former director of the Computer Engineering and Teaching degree at the CEMA UniversityCenter for Macroeconomic Studies, a NEWS-. So If there is a person who has a record, The system already places it on alert and then identifies body movements, ways of walking, behaviors that increase the probabilities that there may be suspicious activities, always based on the data that the system has.”
And he adds: “The data is obtained from the video cameras, so that it can be identified if a person has a weapon, the face of a person, their behavior, or the license plate of a vehicle. In other words, there are various video analytics that can be captured to incorporate into that black box that is the system powered by artificial intelligence algorithms. That is to say that on the one hand we have the video analytics information that arrives in real timeand on the other hand the historic information of robbery events, acts of violence or criminal acts. “AI plays a central role and is what allows us to predict facts or events of these characteristics.”
From a technical point of view, the solution created by Addario involves the integration and interrelation of Big Data, video Analytics and Artificial Intelligence tools. And that kind of black box is customizable for each situation.
“This black box is designed so that it can be connected to any type of company, institution and context, that is, it is not only designed for the public sphere, although for the visa application I had to limit the project and I designed for an urban security project.
Why not just security cameras? “Because when it comes to criminal behavior, cameras not only do not deter, but, in many cases, they also do not add value. They became a passive element within the city and the police use them to monitor, to clarify events that have already happened. What I propose is that those cities that already have cameras today can put one more layer of analysis through Big Data and artificial intelligence so that in real time the authorities can take action in the face of a certain event.”
In the case that Addario presented together with Andres EchevarriaDirector of Vivanco & Vivanco, the emphasis is on the mass shootings that usually occur in the United States, in schools or shopping malls. “My project is aimed at trying to predict those types of things so that they do not happen and, in the worst case, to minimize the impact of that tragedy. “Artificial intelligence gives additional value to issuing alerts in real time when any of this occurs.”
An important element is that this project seeks to minimize the need for a person to look at the screen.
permanently to detect that something is happening. What is sought is that it does not depend on the eye of a human being to realize that a shooting is occurring or about to occur. Therefore, when the system detects alarm situations, it issues an alert in real time even when the person monitoring the system is not looking.
