CCTV clues will unmask Covid crimes

ARTIFICIAL intelligence group Seequestor, which specialises in analysis software for CCTV systems, has trialled technology that can pick out people in crowds who are not wearing masks.

Co-founder and chief technology officer Henry Hyde-thomson said it has already carried out tests. Aside from detecting who is and is not wearing masks in real time, SeeQuestor’s system can show if people are complying with social distancing.

Hyde-thomson said: “We did a project with Network Rail at a large London terminus and one of the things we demonstrated was how people move and how far away they kept from each other, which, unfortunately, was not very.”

Conventional CCTV monitoring requires people to constantly watch and analyse video for hours, which is inefficient and leads to crimes in progress and threats being missed.

Seequestor’s intelligent CCTV system uses artificial intelligence to monitor live video feeds from thousands of cameras.

It can track and identify persons of interest, create alerts from watchlists, spot weapons, suspicious behaviour, unattended bags and more.

Information is provided in real time to control rooms and field agents.

Seequestor has raised £2.2 million from venture capital network Growthdeck. Demand is expected to be strong given its potential use as a health tool to track and trace people.

Chief executive Thibaud Weick said its customers in the Middle East and South-east Asia are the mostly likely to drive demand.