Technologies boost public transportation safety : SecuRex

Various technologies, including megapixel cameras and video analytics, are available to ensure safety of travel on buses and metros, said Alex Kwan, General Manager of Hong Kong-based SecuRex Solution.

He made the comments amid concerns over safety on metro systems after various incidents in recent years. The most recent one happened in Taipei in May, as a 21-year-old man allegedly stabbed passengers randomly inside a metro train, leaving four dead.

According to Kwan, events like these have prompted metro operators around the world to deploy cutting-edge surveillance technologies that can detect threats early. And, should a disaster happen, technologies allow rescuers and law enforcement officials to respond in the quickest way possible.

One of the technologies is video analytics, also known as VCA. “Improvement in accuracy has enabled VCA to be more widely adopted in the transportation sector,” Kwan said. “Post-recording intelligent search allows instantaneous search based on specific criteria.”

Further, VCA no longer resides just in the server, as was the case in the past. More and more, VCA is found in the edge device, namely the camera, which is also capable of capturing megapixel, high-resolution images for better identification and recognition.

Network video recorders, meanwhile, are bolstered with hard drives that are bigger in capacity and resistant to vibration. Video management software now includes the so-called video-push function, where users can capture images with their mobile devices and transmit them to the central command.