IISc researchers develop 'Anveshak' smart video tracking software: Here's how it works.
CCTV cameras are being placed at various places in order to help reduce the crime around the country. These cameras are not only helpful in tracking down a thief or a murderer but they are also helpful for a lot of other things. These cameras also help to manage the city traffic. The researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) have taken this one step further.
IISc. researchers have developed a software platform using which apps and algorithms can intelligently track and analyse video feeds from cameras spread across cities. This would prove to be useful not only for tracking missing persons or objects, but also for ‘smart city’ initiatives such as automated traffic control.
‘Anveshak’ has been developed by Yogesh Simmhan, Associate Professor in the Department of Computational and Data Sciences (CDS), and his team. It can not only run these tracking models efficiently, but it can also plug in advanced computer vision tools and intelligently adjust different parameters.
The software tool can be used to track an object across a 1,000-camera network. With the help of its tracking model, one can focus only on feeds from certain cameras along an expected route, and tune out other feeds. It can also increase or decrease the search radius when required.
The press release explains, “In 2019, as part of a winning entry for the IEEE TCSC SCALE Challenge award, Simmhan’s lab showed how Anveshak could potentially be used to control traffic signals and automatically open up “green routes” for ambulances to move faster. The platform used a machine learning model to track an ambulance on a simulated Bengaluru road network with about 4,000 cameras. It also employed a ‘spotlight tracking algorithm’ to automatically restrict which feeds needed to be analysed based on where the ambulance was expected to go.”
