Pop queen Taylor Swift’s concert in Paris was guarded by AI-powered video surveillance as the city prepares for an increased level of security during the Summer Olympics 2024. The French police used the technology in two Paris metro stations that the fans were using, according to EuroNews. The video system was deployed because the risk of terrorism escalated, as Euronews reported.
The AI system was set up in anticipation of the Olympics, scheduled for July and August. The software for instant surveillance analyzes objects, including weapons, fire, dead bodies on the ground, bags left unattended, suspicious crowd behavior, and so on.
Advanced AI algorithms
The AI algorithms used for real-time surveillance are programmed to find and report authorities to suspicious or probably dangerous activities. These are the main indicators of weapons, fire hazards, abandoned packages, bodies on the ground, and abnormal crowd behaviors. These proactive steps are intended to guarantee the safety and security of the people, both the residents and the visitors, during big events like the Olympics.
Trial runs are conducted with cameras, even at other events, such as the Cannes Film Festival. The AI-monitored security cameras will detect 40,000 spectators and some film stars until the end of the festival on May 25. According to local authorities, 17 of those cameras are AI-powered and the city on the French Riviera has already established the “densest video protection network in France” by introducing 884 of those cameras, Barrons reports.
The AI camera technology has been tested as well during Depeche Mode’s concert, the English band which took place recently.
Efficiency concerns and criticisms
The introduction of algorithmic tracking is to be strictly limited to the Olympics, while it has also faced criticism from activists and lawmakers. Others are worried that the Paris Olympics will be a model for other events. However, the system also poses other issues, such as the problem of its efficiency. The loss of video footage because of the system overload could be a reason of a security threat, says Vishwa Vijoyendra Narayan, the director of product management at Quantum.
According to Narayan,” Losing vital sections of footage wouldn’t go down well with the public, heightening concerns about reliability and transparency.”
The previous network video recorders (NVRs) were not designed to handle video surveillance operations in a large scale. The current surveillance systems are replacing the old NVR servers with a single compute and storage based software platform for video recording and advanced analytics. According to him, these systems enable the hosting of more than 10,000 cameras on a single system.
