IEEE Spectrum November, 2011 - 13

more online at spectrum.ieee.org

The Future of Riots

Video surveillance of London's rioters
points to the future of facial recognition

O

n 6 August, peaceful
protests over the police
shooting of a local man
in London's Tottenham district
exploded into full-blown riots.
During four days of assaults,
arson, and looting, some of
London's thousands of closedcircuit TV cameras captured
video of the violence.
In the aftermath of the
unrest, police officials began
poring over footage in an attempt
to identify suspected rioters.
They even employed a facial
spectrum.ieee.org

recognition system designed
for use during the 2012 Olympic
Games, in London. But they
found traditional investigative
techniques to be much more
fruitful than software, in part
because many of the rioters had
obscured their faces with hoods
or bandannas, and because other
factors such as poor lighting
made it difficult to identify people.
The presence of cameras
was clearly not a deterrent to
the London rioters. But will
technological advances that seem

poised to eliminate anonymity
prevent civil unrest in the future?
"I don't think we'll ever be able
to predict the behavior of crowds,
because they're notoriously unpredictable," says James Orwell, of
the computing and information
systems department at London's
Kingston University. Still, Orwell,
who has been developing recognition and tracking systems, says
that the proliferation of cameras
and technologies that help authorities make more efficient use of the
increasing volume of video may
make an individual think twice.
Researchers working with
Orwell and his colleague Sergio
Velastin have developed software
that allows for the automatic
detection of objects or events in
video footage, creating continuity

The clash:
A rioter throws
a rock at police
in London. Face
recognition
systems could
probably tell you
all about him.
photo: Dan IstItene/
Getty ImaGes

november 2011 * Ieee Spectrum * nA

13



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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum November, 2011

IEEE Spectrum November, 2011 - Cover1
IEEE Spectrum November, 2011 - Cover2
IEEE Spectrum November, 2011 - 1
IEEE Spectrum November, 2011 - 2
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IEEE Spectrum November, 2011 - Cover3
IEEE Spectrum November, 2011 - Cover4
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