Pictures of the Future Spring 2007
Livable Megacities – Security
Eyes on Everything
A city’s reputation depends largely on whether residents and visitors feel safe. Siemens offers solutions that range from intelligent video surveillance of public spaces and subway system to worldwide container tracking for major ports.
Surveillance systems are an essential part of today’s security mix. Siemens’ VistaScape platform is ideal for combing and interpreting data from multiple sources at airports and other major facilities
Protecting urban centers from intruders has always been of paramount importance. As early as the Middle Ages, major trading centers were going to great lengths to build battlements, including towers and fortification walls. Access to cities was controlled at checkpoints, and anyone approaching the most important buildings, for example a palace, was confronted by heavily armed guards.
Even though today’s cities are thousands of times larger than medieval settlements, the fundamental security problems of the past are still with us today. The city gates of old have been replaced by airports, rail stations and highways, which are under stricter control than ever before. Following the attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the subsequent terrorist attacks in Madrid and London, major cities in western industrialized countries in particular have been going to great lengths to adapt their security concepts to the new challenges that have emerged as a result of these events. Experts estimate that the market for security systems to protect cities, events and transportation infrastructures will grow to an annual volume of approximately $106 billion by 2010. London, for example, is a pioneer in monitoring public spaces. The city has installed roughly 500,000 video cameras. Most Londoners don’t object to being watched on an everyday basis. After the July 2005 attacks, analysis of videos recorded by transit system cameras quickly put the authorities on the terrorists’ trail. Within hours of the bombings, Siemens provided the city with a team of experts and associated specialized equipment. Plans call for a greater emphasis in the future on using monitoring systems in a manner that could prevent attacks and disasters.
Siemens is working intensively to develop automatic image-processing systems that will be able to interpret data (see Machine Vision – Trends and Video Surveillance in Pictures of the Future, Fall 2006). Thanks to the acquisition of the U.S. company VistaScape in late 2006, Siemens is able to offer a system platform that uses defined rules to interpret data it compiles from cameras, sensors, radar and ultrasound systems.
"We use this platform to monitor very large outdoor areas such as harbors and airports," explains Peter Löffler, who is responsible for smart video surveillance at Siemens Building Technologies in Zug, Switzerland. The system depicts objects, for example pedestrians and cars, as symbols on three-dimensional models of aerial views. The system’s users see the objects in terms of their size, direction, and speed of movement. If radar detects an unfamiliar object, for instance, the system calculates which camera is best positioned to supply more precise images. "This is a big leap forward from earlier video analysis systems," Löffler explains.
High-rise buildings such as Taipei 101 require a specialized security solutions. In London, cameras monitor nearly all public spaces (bottom)
What’s more, Siemens Corporate Research (SCR) in Princeton is developing algorithms that are opening up new areas of application for automated video monitoring. By this summer, SCR researchers expect that it will be possible to determine on a monitor which person belongs with a specific piece of luggage, for example. With this smart link, an alarm will not be issued if the luggage owner leaves it to simply walk a few meters to a trash bin; but it will be if he or she is absent for a longer duration.
Amorphous crowds of people pose the greatest challenge for future monitoring systems. "We need algorithms that can evaluate the characteristics of crowds," explains Löffler. To meet this need, SCR is working on filtering out concrete information from movement data: individuals moving faster than a crowd’s average speed, or groups that suddenly change their direction of movement. Using a measurement of crowd density, predefined values can be automatically set in motion. If there’s a risk of panic due to overcrowding on a train platform, for instance, the platform entrances can be closed in time to defuse the situation.
Cameras that Call.In addition to object and anomaly detection and interpretation, smart video monitoring platforms will be able to seamlessly share information. For instance, if a potential medical emergency is detected such as a person lying on the ground, a surveillance platform could automatically determine the position of the nearest available rescue personnel using WLAN. Emergency personnel will wear radio signal transmitters that continually advise the system of their positions; a control system would then then handle communications and manage the response.
Such combined surveillance and information platforms would be particularly helpful in the world’s largest buildings, such as Taiwan’s 509 m-tall Taipei 101 and the 700 m-tall Burj Dubai apartment and office tower, which is now under construction. The fifth-tallest building today is the Jin Mao building in Shanghai, which Siemens equipped with fire and personnel safety protection systems. "We’ve installed about 4,500 fire detectors on the building’s 88 floors," says Lance Rütimann of SBT. A fire in the skyscraper would most likely require the evacuation of thousands of people. The system in Shanghai reports indications of a fire, determines its location and notifies response teams.
If the situation requires, the needed information is automatically forwarded by advanced voice alarm systems—the latest is the E100 from Siemens. This system instructs people in danger zones to leave, naming the emergency exits that should be used to ensure a safe, efficient evacuation. Simultaneous announcements keep occupants of other parts of the building up to date as to the status of the situation.
"Compared to what’s often observed with warnings consisting only of an alarm, people respond more positively to voice announcements and are more likely to behave appropriately in such situations," says Rütimann. In a control center, in turn, the E100 automatically activates a protocol including response instructions and automated procedures for security personnel. "This prevents incorrect reactions arising due to stress," Rütimann explains.
Security in Liverpool: Smart image analysis
One consequence of 9/11 is the realization that every new high-rise building should have a back-up control center outside the building itself. If the main control center has been damaged or destroyed, the back-up center can take over.
Seamless fire protection is also needed in transportation tunnels in megacities. In this connection, Siemens equips subway and railroad tunnels with multifunctional fire protection systems. Such systems not only detect fires, but can determine their exact positions, activate fire extinguishing systems, close access points and, of course, sound alarms (Tunnel Safety in Pictures of the Future, Fall 2005).
Due to the thick smoke and wind speeds of up to ten meters per second that characterize major tunnel fires, conventional fire alarms often fail. Used instead are heat sensors or, especially for very long tunnels, laser light via glass fiber cables. By measuring the intensity of backscattered light, such a system can communicate temperatures along every point on a glass fiber. Siemens has used such glass fiber systems in subway systems in Beijing, Bangkok and Hong Kong, and in tunnel sections on the high-speed rail route between Madrid and Barcelona.
Until fire departments arrive on the scene, the system fights a fire primarily by controlling it, using fans to remove smoke and cooling the area with sprinkler systems. This is the only way to reduce toxic gases, which can be extremely hazardous.
One consequence of 9/11 is the realization that every new high-rise building should have a back-up control center outside the building itself. If the main control center has been damaged or destroyed, the back-up center can take over.
Seamless fire protection is also needed in transportation tunnels in megacities. In this connection, Siemens equips subway and railroad tunnels with multifunctional fire protection systems. Such systems not only detect fires, but can determine their exact positions, activate fire extinguishing systems, close access points and, of course, sound alarms (Tunnel Safety in Pictures of the Future, Fall 2005).
Due to the thick smoke and wind speeds of up to ten meters per second that characterize major tunnel fires, conventional fire alarms often fail. Used instead are heat sensors or, especially for very long tunnels, laser light via glass fiber cables. By measuring the intensity of backscattered light, such a system can communicate temperatures along every point on a glass fiber. Siemens has used such glass fiber systems in subway systems in Beijing, Bangkok and Hong Kong, and in tunnel sections on the high-speed rail route between Madrid and Barcelona.
Until fire departments arrive on the scene, the system fights a fire primarily by controlling it, using fans to remove smoke and cooling the area with sprinkler systems. This is the only way to reduce toxic gases, which can be extremely hazardous.
Marine freight transport is becoming safer. Siemens’ Commerce Guard system ensures seamless monitoring of containers, which are equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags
Safe Harbors. The biggest cities are also the world’s most important trading centers. To date, the aspect of security that is most in the public eye has been the monitoring of people. Worldwide, however, government security agencies are working to ensure more thorough monitoring of freight transport.
Rotterdam, the world’s seventh-largest seaport and Europe’s largest container port, is playing a groundbreaking role in this area with its nuclear material detection system. Everything that moves through the port—more than 330 mill. t of goods per year—passes through one of 35 isotope detection portals provided by Siemens Netherlands. There are also three mobile portals.
Using a system platform, the collected data is then fed directly into the data processing system of the Netherlands customs authorities and forwarded to other public agencies if needed. "This clearly makes Rotterdam one of the world’s safest, most secure ports," says Werner Krüdewagen of Siemens Building Technologies.
Rotterdam will also become the world’s first port to be equipped with a system that monitors containers in transit—from their loading sites to the locations where they are emptied. Plans call for all ports worldwide to have access to this infrastructure in the near future.
With the "Commerce Guard" solution, which is marketed worldwide by a joint venture comprising Siemens, General Electric, Mitsubishi and Samsung, a tamper-proof RFID device is magnetically affixed to the interior of a container.
The system sounds an alarm every time a container door is opened without authorization. It also transmits all the data on the container’s ID, manifest and destination to a secure server when the container passes a reading device at the port. The result is a secure corridor for freight transport.
With this technology, today’s big cities actually have distinguished themselves from their medieval predecessors. They can protect not only their citizens and their infrastructure, but also the cargo that is in transit between urban trading centers.
Katrin Nikolaus
Safe Harbors. The biggest cities are also the world’s most important trading centers. To date, the aspect of security that is most in the public eye has been the monitoring of people. Worldwide, however, government security agencies are working to ensure more thorough monitoring of freight transport.
Rotterdam, the world’s seventh-largest seaport and Europe’s largest container port, is playing a groundbreaking role in this area with its nuclear material detection system. Everything that moves through the port—more than 330 mill. t of goods per year—passes through one of 35 isotope detection portals provided by Siemens Netherlands. There are also three mobile portals.
Using a system platform, the collected data is then fed directly into the data processing system of the Netherlands customs authorities and forwarded to other public agencies if needed. "This clearly makes Rotterdam one of the world’s safest, most secure ports," says Werner Krüdewagen of Siemens Building Technologies.
Rotterdam will also become the world’s first port to be equipped with a system that monitors containers in transit—from their loading sites to the locations where they are emptied. Plans call for all ports worldwide to have access to this infrastructure in the near future.
With the "Commerce Guard" solution, which is marketed worldwide by a joint venture comprising Siemens, General Electric, Mitsubishi and Samsung, a tamper-proof RFID device is magnetically affixed to the interior of a container.
The system sounds an alarm every time a container door is opened without authorization. It also transmits all the data on the container’s ID, manifest and destination to a secure server when the container passes a reading device at the port. The result is a secure corridor for freight transport.
With this technology, today’s big cities actually have distinguished themselves from their medieval predecessors. They can protect not only their citizens and their infrastructure, but also the cargo that is in transit between urban trading centers.
Katrin Nikolaus
Biometrics—A Quiet Revolution
"Biometrics is quietly revolutionizing everyday life,"says Gerd Hribernig (photo right), head of the Biometrics Center that Siemens opened last Fall in Graz, Austria. A key reason for establishing the center came courtesy of the United States, with its requirement that travelers arriving without visas must have passports with photos and fingerprints in electronic formats. EU member nations introduced passports with e-photos in 2006, and EU passports will be required to have fingerprints by 2008. In Switzerland, the Siemens Biometrics Center has been commissioned by the government to launch a pilot project with 100,000 participants. The binding of the new passport contains a paper-thin RFID chip with an antenna, and the passport holder’s photo and personal data are stored on the chip. This data can be remotely registered by special reading devices at minimal distances, for example by customs authorities when travelers arrive in a foreign country. In these instances, a passport holder can be photographed on the spot, and the new image can be compared to the one stored on the chip. The advantage of this is that the passport photo displays a specific geometry in which the position of the eyes, for example, can be carefully checked, making it virtually impossible to travel on a forged or stolen passport. Companies have joined governments in making the most of biometric methods. At Frankfurt/Main Airport, for example, Lufthansa and Siemens have started a pilot project for testing check-in and boarding procedures that utilizes electronically stored fingerprints. "It saves a lot of time at the airport for passengers taking short-haul flights," explains Hribernig. Experts expect biometric forms of identification to also gradually replace passwords and electronic "keys" in the workplace, which is good news for the absent-minded among us. After all, code words can be forgotten, and keys will sooner or later be misplaced—but you’re never without your fingerprint.