Privacy and the new CCTV surveillance technology

Privacy protected with the new CCTV surveillance technology. (Image: 3VR)

Most people are unhappy about being filmed by CCTV, in case the footage is used against them in some unlikely way. Now 3VR, a surveillance technology company has come up with a method of scrambling the images of anyone in CCTV film who is not a suspect.

3VR, based in San Francisco, says it should reassure members of the public who do not wish to be identifiable to police or lawyers, or even TV crime-stopper shows.

Face-recognition Algorithms

The technology uses 3VR's recently patented face-recognition algorithms to home in on known faces in crowds. An image-scrambling algorithm then blurs the faces and bodies of those who are not of interest and encrypts the blur pattern. So, no one but the operator of the technology can unscramble it.

An image-scrambling algorithm blurs the faces of those in the footage who are not of interest

Monitor Known Felons

"This allows you to search for suspects, known felons and people on watch lists, but without capturing massive databases of apparently innocent people," says Stephen Russell, 3VR's chairman. The company aims to supply the equipment to banks and retail chains so they can analyse CCTV footage for known suspects. Criminals who install card skimmers on ATMs are a likely target.

Open to Abuse

The idea is unlikely to satisfy all privacy advocates, since scrambled footage is still open to abuse. "A safer approach is to record images, only when machine analysis detects something suspicious and that way there is no recording of anything, for 99.99 per cent of the time," says Mike Lynch of data-analysis company Autonomy.