Video: Smart CCTV

Keeping an eye out for baddies (Image: Geoff Moore/Rex Features)

WHAT’S the difference between a suicide bomber and a cleaner? It sounds like the opening line of a sick joke, but for computer scientists working on intelligent video-surveillance software, being able to make that distinction is a key goal.

Current CCTV systems can collect masses of data, but little of it is used, says Shaogang Gong, a computer-vision computation researcher at Queen Mary, University of London. “What we really need are better ways to mine that data,” he says.

Gong is leading an international team of researchers …