CCTVS EQUIPPED WITH AI TECHNOLOGY

[Anchor Lead]

Surveillance cameras are installed all over the place in Korea to monitor and record accidents or crimes but they can only do so much to prevent them. But now CCTVs equipped with artificial intelligence will be deployed to prevent such unfortunate incidents.

[Pkg]

Rescuers carefully monitor hundreds of CCTV screens. They cannot take their eyes off the screen even for a moment as they must respond immediately to possible suicide attempts from the bridges.

[Soundbite] Lee Jung-beom(Captain, Yeouido Water Rescue Brigade) : "It’s hard to deal with fatigue between 12 a.m. to 4 a.m."

Some screens light up in red to warn of an incident. The cameras detected a possible suicide jumper. The cameras analyze the behavior of a person on the screen and determine if the person is about to jump. The distinction accuracy rate is 86%. Artificial intelligence has studied a year’s worth of videos from some 570 surveillance cameras.

[Soundbite] Kim Jun-chul(Senior Researcher, Seoul Institute of Technology) : "A person hesitating before jumping has certain patterns. Those patterns are analyzed."

This AI-equipped monitoring system will go for a test-run next month at the integrated control center of the Seoul Metropolitan Fire & Disaster Headquarters. An increasing number of such smart CCTVs are installed at industrial sites as well. An alarm goes off when an individual enters a restricted area. Unlike an ordinary sensor, a smart camera can even discern a human movement and an object in motion. It can distinguish between steam and smoke from a fire and spot a worker without proper safety gear.

[Soundbite] Kim Moo-sang(Chief, POSCO Information Planning Group) : "It studied tens of thousands of different situations. Our work would be made safer if automation is possible."

The combination of CCTVs and AI is expected to drastically lower the risk of various accidents. However, protection of personal information remains an issue.

[Soundbite] Kim Keon-woo(Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) : "The national research challenge is to develop a de-identification technology that enables AI in CCTVs to recognize personal information."

The government is working to come up with a set of standards to prevent abuse and misuse of such AI tech.