In what can be termed as a landmark punishment, an artificial intelligence-powered CCTV camera this week aided the cops in identifying and punishing a citizen for spitting and defacing public property.
These smart cameras installed by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) were able to identify a citizen’s body movements, interpret them, and understand that the person, identified as one Mukesh Kumar, was breaking the law.
According to a report in a national daily, this AI can pinpoint people who are:
- Smoking in public
- Holding a mobile phone while driving
- Loitering in restricted spaces
- Smashing windshields
- Record ambient conversations
“The cameras can even detect people defacing walls with graffiti or dumping in the open. But the function has to be activated,” a senior AMC official told the newspaper.
The Indian Police force has already started taking an increasing interest in crime analytics using big data, which involves storing and analysing huge volume and variety of data in real time, to predict and inference patterns and trends especially relating to human interactions and behaviour. To know which areas are most prone to crimes, the police force also uses predictive analytics to develop models using machine learning to know which areas are most prone to crime. This helps them to keep a track on which criminals or individuals to keep a track on.
For example, the Delhi police has partnered with ISRO to develop an analytical system called Crime Mapping, Analytics and Predictive System (CMAPS), which helps the Delhi police to ensure internal security, controlling crime, and maintaining law and order through analysis of data and patterns.
Late last year, the Delhi traffic police had announced the proposed installation of an intelligent traffic management system (ITMS). The news traffic management system will work on radar-based monitoring with the help of AI. The police analyse the traffic pattern, volume, number of vehicles, and other factors, and collect them on a cloud. The data then would be used to manage the traffic — one of the key tools being the automated traffic signals.
Jharkhand police force is trying to implement an analytical system with the help of IIM Ranchi, to help evaluate criminal records, date and time of crime occurrences, and location to predict crime-prone zones.
