The global war on terror has spawned major advances in surveillance technology and Hong Kong may have contributed the next big thing in this billion-dollar industry.
Researchers at Chinese University have developed a 'smart' video-monitoring system that can automatically pick out people acting suspiciously in a large crowd. The system, still in a test phase, is designed to detect abnormal behaviour within a crowd and alerts the authorities of danger ahead of time.
This eliminates the risk caused by faulty human judgment or inattentive security guards.
'Although there are numerous security cameras in Hong Kong, they are not intelligent enough, they still require people to monitor the footage,' said Qian Huihuan, lead researcher and a post-doctorate fellow at the university's department of mechanical and automation engineering.
'The drawback of this is that people can make mistakes, miss things and get tired.'
Although the idea of being individually tracked by a faceless machine sounds like an Orwellian nightmare, Qian believes the benefits of the system far outweigh the costs.
