Now, CCTV that can ‘sense’ aggression from sound

Saturday, 6 November 2010 05:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

London (ANI): A UK company has developed a CCTV technology, which can assert if you’re being aggressive or calling for help.

What’s more, it will alert security guards straight away.

The Cambridge firm Audio Analytic has produced software, which can analyse the pitch, tone and intonation of noises and work out if they pose a threat.

“Our system picks out the most salient characteristics. These are things related to pitch, tone, intonation,” the BBC quoted CEO of Audio Analytic, Chris Mitchell, as saying.

“A lot of incidents just can’t be picked up by video only systems. For example in a hospital where somebody, or a nurse, is being threatened early hours in the morning - that’s a very difficult thing for CCTV guards who monitor hundreds of channels worth of video signals on 20 screens or so to pick up,” he explained.

Essentially, Mitchell explained, the software contains hundreds of audio fingerprints, and as soon as a sound resembles a stored sample, the alarm is raised. However, like any software early in its development, there are a few loopholes in the technology but Mitchell’s team is confident the technology is ready to get out into the market.