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Detection of Abandoned Objects in Crowded Environments

Technical Report · June 2016

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3884.6963

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Ali Assi Bassel Shanwar

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Nizar Zarka
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 1

Higher Institute for Applied Sciences and Technology

Communications Department

Detection of June 22

2016
Abandoned Objects
in Crowded
Environments

Submitted by : Ali Assi

Multimedia
4thyear
Supervisors :
Project
Dr. Nizar zarka
En. Bassel Shanor
Detection of Abandoned Objects

Contents
1. Table of Figures ................................................................................................ 3
2. List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................... 4
3. Key Words ......................................................................................................... 5
4. Abstract ............................................................................................................. 6
5. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 7
6. General Idea ...................................................................................................... 8
7. Algorithm of this project ................................................................................... 8
 Region Of Interest (ROI) ............................................................................... 8
 Auto Threshold .............................................................................................. 8
 Subtraction ..................................................................................................... 9
 Convert color Type ........................................................................................ 9
 Image Segmentation .................................................................................... 10
 Morphological Operation ............................................................................. 10
 Object Tracking ........................................................................................... 10
 Alarm ........................................................................................................... 11
8. Flowchart ......................................................................................................... 12
9. Results ............................................................................................................. 13

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

Detection of Abandoned Objects

1. Table of Figures
Figure 1 : Subtraction ............................................................................................... 9
Figure 2 : RGB to YCrCb Conversion ..................................................................... 9
Figure 3 : Image Segmentation .............................................................................. 10
Figure 4 : Flowchart ............................................................................................... 12
Figure 5 : All objects .............................................................................................. 13
Figure 6 : Abandoned Objects ............................................................................... 13
Figure 7 : All Objects ............................................................................................. 14
Figure 8 : Abandoned Objects ............................................................................... 14

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

Detection of Abandoned Objects

2. List of Abbreviations
ROI : Region Of Interest

RGB : Red Green Blue (Color Type)

YCrCb : Color Type.

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

Detection of Abandoned Objects

3. Key Words
Abandoned objects.

Crowded environments.

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

Detection of Abandoned Objects

4. Abstract
We present a new project to robustly and efficiently detect abandoned and
removed objects in complex environments. Several improvements are
implemented to the background subtraction method for shadow removal, quick
lighting change adaptation. The system is capable of handling concurrent
detection of multiple abandoned objects, up to 200 objects, track them, and set an
alarm if any abandoned object was detected.

Any object could be left for specified period of time (certain number of frames); if
it exceeds the limit, the system will set an alarm.
On the other hand, abandoned object could be missed for certain number of
frames, if it exceeds the limit of frames, the system will turn the alarm off.

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

Detection of Abandoned Objects

5. Introduction

The monitoring and surveillance of unattended baggage has become a priority for
the security, because of the increasing number of incidents where terror
organizations have planted explosive devices in ordinary baggage.

One of the more critical challenges faced by security personnel monitoring mass
transportation terminals and other busy public facilities is the issue of real-time
detection of unattended or abandoned luggage. From airports to train stations and
bus depots, museums, sports stadium and other places which are considered as
crowded environments.

Recent studies have shown that the average human can focus on tracking the
movements of up to four dynamic targets simultaneously, and can efficiently
detect changes to the attended targets but not the neighboring distractors, that is
why we need to depend on the technology, which can be used to assist security
officers monitoring live surveillance video by directing their attention to a
potential area of interest.

Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Leeds, David Hogg, says:

"Due to increased anxieties around the threat of terrorism, the monitoring and
surveillance of unattended baggage has become a top priority across the globe. By
employing advanced computer technology our system will make this kind of
surveillance much less prone to human error."

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

Detection of Abandoned Objects

6. General Idea
In this project, our main goal is to detect any abandoned object in crowded
environments, and then if the abandoned was left for a specified time, we will set
an alarm by drawing a rectangle over the detected abandoned object.

7. Algorithm of this project

 Region Of Interest (ROI)

You don`t need to watch all the area which the camera covers, may all you need is
to watch a specified region, that`s what we called the region of interest.

Selecting the region of interest minimize the errors that could happened because of
the movement of some objects that we don`t care about, such as train in the train
station … etc.

 Auto Threshold
Since many functions work with binary pictures it`s recommended to convert the
frames to binary.

The auto threshold operation determines the threshold by splitting the histogram of
the input image to minimize the variance for each of the pixel groups, and that`s
what we called Otsu's method.

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

Detection of Abandoned Objects

 Subtraction
First, we will consider the first frame of the video as a background, and to detect
the new object in the video; we will subtract the background from each frame, , we
will detect every new object because of the difference between the background
and the current frame.

Figure 1 : Subtraction

 Convert color Type

To get a better results, it`s recommended to convert the color type from RGB to
YCbCr, which offers greater robustness to changes in illumination.

Figure 2 : RGB to YCrCb Conversion

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

Detection of Abandoned Objects

 Image Segmentation
To define the many objects in the videos, the segmentation process will return
statics of the input video, and that`s how we get the parts of object connected to
each other.

Having blobs or segmented objects is necessary to detect the various objects.

Figure 3 : Image Segmentation

 Morphological Operation
A series of morphological operations may be carried out to ‘clean’ up the image,
retaining only the most useful segments

Applying Closing operation on the segmented objects will help to get clearer
frames and obvious connected objects.

 Object Tracking
The system will track the movement of the detected object, to notify the client
about any new elements in the video, and maybe to track the owner of the
abandoned baggage.

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

Detection of Abandoned Objects

 Alarm
If any abandoned object was detected and still exist for a period of time, we will
set an alarm, and if the detected abandoned object was missed for a specified time,
the alarm will turn off again.

In our case, the alarm is a filled rectangle drawn over the detected object.

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

Detection of Abandoned Objects

8. Flowchart

Figure 4 : Flowchart

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

Detection of Abandoned Objects

9. Results
After applying the project on video, we notice that by changing the ROI we will
get a different results, it`s necessary to select the region of interest before starting
the detecting object in order to minimize the errors.
Any change in the frames will be considered as new object, and could be
considered as abandoned object.
Even after changing the color type from RGB to YCrCb, the change in luminance
and the existing of shadows will affect the result.

Selecting small ROI, we got the following results:

Figure 5 : All objects

Figure 6 : Abandoned Objects

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

Detection of Abandoned Objects

We notice that we got 100% correct result, but with a bigger ROI , we will get
some errors :

Figure 7 : All Objects

Figure 8 : Abandoned Objects

So we got one false detection in this case.

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

 Detection of Abandoned Objects

10. Conclusion and future work

Public safety is a critical issue in our world today. Through the assistance of
automatic threat detection systems, security personnel may be equipped with
instant and comprehensive awareness of potential crises. In this paper, we
introduce a general framework to recognize the event of object abandonment in a
busy scene. The proposed algorithm is characterized by its simplicity and
intuitiveness.

Segmentation is another challenging issue, including foreground as well as object

segmentation. For better foreground segmentation, it would be worth exploring
techniques of adaptive background modeling, or a mechanism for switching
among pre-stored background models (backgrounds of the platform with and
without the train, for example).

Many improvements could be applied on this project, when an unattended object

is detected, the system traces it back in time to determine and record who its most
likely owner(s) may be.

Ali Assi, Eng. Bassel Shanwar, Dr. Nizar Zarka

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