|
Overview:
Motivated by security concerns, an emerging class of digital video cameras provides unprecedented ability to zoom in and capture high-resolution video images within a wide field of view. This capability is desirable for practical applications, such as security, public viewing of progress at a construction site and in research applications such as monitoring behavior in public sites.
However, such cameras raise significant privacy concerns. We propose to investigate a new approach to providing some measure of visual privacy by hiding an individual's identity while allowing observation of their physical actions and other live images of the scene. Our approach is to utilize wearable "markers" that can be detected by image processing software in real time. For example, we could provide inexpensive hats of a particular color or pattern at the border of the space where the camera is present (similar to the respectful hats or leg-coverings that are made available at the entrance to churches or synagogues). Our objective is to develop "respectful cameras."
Hypotheses:
1. In real time (30 frames per second) it is possible to reliably
identify moving markers worn by individuals in a video stream and to overlay obstructions over faces/bodies to hide the identity of individuals.
2. The majority of people who desire visual privacy will find this
method provides a reasonable means and sufficient level of visual privacy.
Members:
Profs: Ken Goldberg, Deirdre Mulligan, Pam Samuelson
PhD Students: Jeremy Schiff, Marci Meingast
UC Berkeley Summer 2006 - Present
Related Material
Respectful Cameras: Detecting Visual Markers in Real-Time to Address Privacy Concerns. Jeremy Schiff, Marci Meingast, Deirdre K. Mulligan, Shankar Sastry, and Ken Goldberg. International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) . [Submitted] San Diego, California. October 2007 [1.2MB .pdf].
Respectful Cameras. Jeremy Schiff, Ken Goldberg, Marci Meingast, Deirdre Mulliganm Pam Samuelson. Exploring the Privacy Implications of Trustworthy Information Systems Workshop for TRUST researchers. University of California, Berkeley. October 5-6. [4.4MB .ppt]
Computer Vision Class Paper [3.2MB .pdf]
An overview of our initial solution [66KB .pdf]
Demos:
[3/28/07] Test evaluating our Dynamic Marker Tracker (with particle filter) at the CITRIS construction site [4.0MB .wmv]
[3/28/07] Test evaluating our Static Marker Detector (no particle filter) at the CITRIS construction site [3.6MB .wmv]
[3/28/07] Test evaluating our Dynamic Marker Tracker at CITRIS with only RGB colorspace [4.5MB .wmv]
[3/28/07] Test evaluating our Dynamic Marker Tracker at CITRIS with only HSV colorspace [4.0MB .wmv]
[3/28/07] Test evaluating our Dynamic Marker Tracker at CITRIS with only LAB colorspace [4.1MB .wmv]
[3/28/07] Test evaluating our Dynamic Marker Tracker at when two people cross in our Lab [4.2MB .wmv]
[3/28/07] Test evaluating our Dynamic Marker Tracker under changing lighting conditions, in particular a bright light being directed at the visual marker causing an extreme specularity [1.9MB .wmv]
[7/27/06] Outdoor test moving between light and shade, illustrating just hat detection on each frame independently [5.6MB .avi].
[7/27/06] Outdoor test moving between light and shade, with Baldassari privacy dot where each frame is processed independently [8.8MB .avi].
Funding:
|
NSF Science and Technology Center, Team for Research in Ubiquitous Secure Technologies, NSF CCF-0424422, with additional support from Cisco, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Symmantec, Telecom Italia and United Technologies. |
Related Press
Respectful Cameras, Brendan Borrell, MIT Technology Review, May 2007
Link: http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18617/
Spy camera hides friendly faces, Martin Lynch, Personal Computer World, May 2007
Link:http://www.computeractive.co.uk/personal-computer-world/news/2189002/spy-camera-hides-friendly-faces
Cámaras que resguardan la privacidad
Link:
http://eblogtech.wordpress.com/2007/05/02/camaras-que-resguardan-la-privacidad/
Private Eyes, Amy Goldwitz. California Magazine, October 2006.
Link: http://www.alumni.berkeley.edu/calmag/200609/praxis_privateeyes.asp
Related Links
University of Kentucky's Multimedia Information Analysis Lab
Link: http://www.vis.uky.edu/mialab
The How to Disappear kit is a counter-reaction to the ever increasing surveillance of citizens.
Link: http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/004967.php
Related Visual Privacy Work at the University of Kentucky
Link: http://www.vis.uky.edu/mialab
Proprietary Product for Visual Privacy Enforcement
Link: http://www.eptascape.com
A security camera company: Pixim
Link: http://pixim.com
News article about automated blinding of CCTV cameras with Infrared LEDs.
Link: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/20/infrared-leds-make-y.html
Article summarizing some recent approaches to providing security with privacy, including Google's new addition of face detection and blurring in Street View for the area of Manhattan.
Link: http://mediamind.org/2008/05/15/privacy-v-security-can-technology-keep-us-safe/