Newsdesk - October 2003

European Commission pioneers intelligent security system

High security locations from prisons, banks and airports to military bases, museums and art galleries will soon be able to improve their intruder protection capability, following the a project being run by the European Commission.

The system, called Fenceguard, combines Integrated Machine Vision (IMV) with fibre optic cabling. It gives organisations the ability to protect installations with security which has the built-in intelligence to learn the difference between a real intruder and a false alarm.

Fenceguard has been developed as part of a European Commission project, EUTIST-IMV, which is aimed at promoting the adoption of IMV technology across a wide range of industries. It has been trialled very successfully at a major European explosives factory as part of a programme covering Hungary and Finland and was shown to the public for the first time at the Automaatio exhibition in Helsinki.

An optical fibre cable is installed as part of a fence, or can even be laid underground. Light is passed through the cable and a sensor is used to terminate the cable to generate an image. When the cable is touched, or triggered by movement, the image changes and the intrusion is detected. The cognitive element of the system gives it the intelligence to distinguish between a real intruder and a false alarm. Fenceguard is one of 23 pilot projects being run by the European Commission to promote the uptake of machine vision. It was developed by Multitec and CCD Photonics of Finland and Electro-Technic of Hungary.

Multitec

Reply number s109

CCD Photonics

Reply number s110

Electro-Technic

Reply number s111