A new method of networked video surveillance with privacy area protection

Privacy area protection has become more important than before in networked video surveillance. In this paper, we address privacy area protection related issues. First, the characteristics of security camera with pan/tilt rotation mechanism are introduced and the privacy problems of video surveillance in public areas are analyzed. Then, a new method of protecting privacy areas is proposed to automatically adapt the panning rotation and tilting rotation of security camera. This method contains two steps to calculate the masked area matrix from predetermined privacy area matrix and some static/dynamic basic parameters. Experimental results have shown that the proposed method could work well in real-systems and protect the privacy areas efficiently.

1 Introduction

Omnipresent networked video surveillance has become a reality in modern society. Monitoring installations with security cameras in public spaces have been widely installed in buildings, airports, banks and streets for crime prevention and investigative purposes. Video surveillance based on network makes captured images are displayed on monitors within police stations or in building management rooms. Thus, the police or building superintendent can monitor the real-time situation of every specific location at which the networked video surveillance is installed through internet or LAN. Although video surveillance is a useful technology for crime deterrence and investigations, remote monitoring system also exposes the privacy of the object in the video. Therefore, the security demands of governments and organizations are seen to be in conflict with the privacy requirements of individuals. It is desirable to design new methods for video surveillance system with a balance between security and privacy appropriately.