Imagery Library for Intelligent Detection Systems (i-LIDS); A Standard for Testing Video Based Detection Systems

The Home Office Scientific Development Branch (HOSDB) evaluates intelligent CCTV and video-based detection systems (VBDS) for security and policing purposes. The commercial market for VBDS is diverse and continues to grow rapidly, yet there are no current standards to assess the performance of these systems. Many government users would like to use VBDS for outdoor applications. However, the systems tend to struggle with changing environmental conditions such as moving shadows and lighting changes. In order to be able to rapidly and reliably assess the performance of VBDS, HOSDB in partnership with the Security Service has produced a video test library, i-LIDS (Imagery Library for Intelligent Detection Systems), a sample of which was released on DVD in 2005. The i-LIDS project was previously named VITAL, and the initial concept was presented at Canahan in 2003. i-LIDS is currently focused on four scenarios: • Abandoned Baggage Detection • Parked Vehicle Detection • Doorway Surveillance • Sterile Zone Monitoring Each scenario contains a variety of `alarm' and `non-alarm' events. `Alarm' events have been determined from a range of operational requirements. The imagery features behavioural patterns that should be detected by VBDS and alerted to a CCTV operator for verification. `Non-alarm' events include sources of false alarms such as changing environmental conditions and common video defects. The four i-LIDS scenarios are due for release by the end of October 2006. This paper details the work conducted since 2003 in compiling the library and focuses on the methodology and parameters used for i-LIDS evaluations.