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takyon writes:

A new algorithm has been used to detect violence in drone-captured video footage:

A drone surveillance system capable of highlighting "violent individuals" in a crowd in real time has been built by [researchers].

The artificially intelligent technology uses a video camera on a hovering quadcopter to study the body movements of everyone in view. It then raises an alert when it identifies aggressive actions, such as punching, stabbing, shooting, kicking, and strangling, with an accuracy of about 85 per cent. It doesn't perform any facial recognition – it merely detects possible violence between folks. And its designers believe the system could be expanded to automatically spot people crossing borders illegally, detect kidnappings in public areas, and set off alarms when vandalism is observed.

The inventors are based at the University of Cambridge, in England, India's National Institute of Technology, and the Indian Institute of Science. They hope their autonomous spy drones will help cops crush crime and soldiers expose enemies hiding in groups of innocents.

Also at Science Magazine.

Eye in the Sky: Real-time Drone Surveillance System (DSS) for Violent Individuals Identification using ScatterNet Hybrid Deep Learning Network (arXiv:1806.00746)

Original Submission