Biologically inspired herding of animal groups by robots

A single sheepdog can bring together and manoeuvre hundreds of sheep from one location to another. Engineers and ecologists are fascinated by this sheepdog herding because of the potential it provides for ‘bio-herding’: a biologically inspired herding of animal groups by robots. Although many herding algorithms have been proposed, most are...

Integrating swarm intelligence with bayesian networks for continuous UAV-based surveillance in dynamic environments

The loss of wildlife due to illegal poaching activity poses threats on both the survival of iconic animal species and the livelihood of local communities. This research proposes a distributed surveillance model in which a UAV swarm autonomously coordinates continuous surveillance in a dynamic environment. The adaptive behaviour of poachers has...

Bridging values: Finding a balance between privacy and control. The case of Corona apps in Belgium and the Netherlands

This paper focuses on two examples of the introduction and use of COVID-19 contact tracing apps in The Netherlands (CoronaMelder) and Belgium (Coronalert). It aims to offer a critical, sociotechnical perspective on tracing apps to understand how social, technical, and institutional dimensions form the ingredients for increasing surveillance....

Mazar of the Treasury: A Pilgrimage in the Taklamakan Desert, of Data Centers and Destroyed Heritage Sites

This project embraces the latent tensions and conflicts within the mysterious Taklamakan Desert, where cultural history is being rewritten within the contemporary paradigm of surveillance capitalism. By binding the national demand for data centers with the archaeological excavation of destroyed heritage sites, the material and cultural memory of...

Passive Sampling of SARS-CoV-2 for Wastewater Surveillance

The shedding of pathogens by infected humans enables the use of sewage monitoring to conduct wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE). Although most WBE studies use data from large sewage treatment plants, timely data from smaller catchments are needed for targeted public health action. Traditional sampling methods, like autosamplers or grab...

Large-Scale ADS-B Data and Signal Quality Analysis

To investigate the contradicting findings of previous studies that investigated ADS-B quality, a study was per-formed to analyze the data and signal quality of ADS-B. For this study, a large dataset of raw ADS-B messages was analyzed, regarding the quality of the data and the signal, differentiating between internal and external sources of...

Modeling undetected live poliovirus circulation after apparent interruption of transmission: Implications for surveillance and vaccination

Background Most poliovirus infections occur with no symptoms and this leads to the possibility of silent circulation, which complicates the confirmation of global goals to permanently end poliovirus transmission. Previous simple models based on hypothetical populations assumed perfect detection of symptomatic cases and suggested the need to...

Ambient Surveillance by Probabilistic-Possibilistic Perception

A method for quantifying ambient surveillance is presented, which is based on probabilistic-possibilistic perception. The human surveillance of a scene through observing camera sensed images on a monitor is modeled in three steps. First immersion of the observer is simulated by modeling perception of the scene from the camera locations using...

Ambient Surveillance by Probabilistic-Possibilistic Perception

A method for quantifying ambient surveillance is presented, which is based on probabilistic-possibilistic perception. The human surveillance of a scene through observing camera sensed images on a monitor is modeled in three steps. First immersion of the observer is simulated by modeling perception of the scene from the camera locations using...

Vision-based 3D Human Motion Analysis in a Hierarchical Way

In the last decade, computer vision has drawn more and more attention because of its potential applications in our daily lives, such as health care, education, safety, and training. However the high complexity of many of the vision-based approaches hinders their practical applications, especially in applications where immediate feedback is...

Qualitative Evaluation of Tracking Systems: A Model based approach

Object Tracking has been a very active area in the field of C omputer Vision. Over the years, a variety of approaches have been put forth to solve this problem and though many of them have demonstrate considerable success none of them have been completely successful. With more methods being written each day, the evaluation of such systems...

Kinect sensing of shopping related actions

Surveillance systems in shopping malls or supermarkets are usually used for detecting abnormal behavior. We used the distributed video cameras system to design digital shopping assistants which assess the behavior of customers while shopping, detect when they need assistance, and offer their support in case there is a selling opportunity. In...

Localization and Classification using an Acoustic Sensor Network - experimental data processing for urban acoustic surveillance

The Acoustic Sensor Network (ASN) has emerged as an important research area, because acoustic sensors can significantly increase situational awareness in many situations. Although little is currently known about acoustic surveillance, Thales Nederland is interested in the potential offered by an ASN in urban environments and specifically for...

Spatial Navigation for Context-aware Video Surveillance

An increasing number of cameras is being used to monitor a growing range of environments. Consequently, surveillance systems consist of an increasing number of screens to display all incoming video streams, making it difficult for observers to maintain a mental model of spatial relations between videos. A number of systems is developed aiming at...

Surveillance system using abandoned luggage detection

Many public or open areas are facilitated with cameras at every angle to monitor the security of that area for keeping the citizens safe, which is known as the surveillance system. For this moment, the best solution to approach a safety environment has to be done by human. Even though a human is the most intelligent creature in this world, still...

Proceedings of the IRCTR Colloquium on Surveillance Sensor Tracking: Papers presented at the International Colloquium held in Delft, The Netherlands, 26 June 1997