Computer vision researcher develops privacy software for surveillance videos

Computer vision can be a valuable tool for anyone tasked with analyzing hours of footage because it can speed up the process of identifying individuals. For example, law enforcement may use it to perform a search for individuals with a simple query, such as "Locate anyone wearing a red scarf over the past 48 hours."

With video surveillance becoming more and more ubiquitous, Assistant Professor Yogesh Rawat, a researcher at the UCF Center for Research in Computer Vision (CRCV), is working to address privacy issues with advanced software installed on video cameras. His work is supported by $200,000 in funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation's Accelerating Research Translation (NSF ART) program.

"Automation allows us to watch a lot of footage, which is not possible by humans," Rawat says. "Surveillance is important for society, but there are always privacy concerns. This development will enable surveillance with privacy ...