Video Analytics to Rescue: Privacy Preserving Video Surveillance

Video surveillance is ubiquitous, which has severe implications for an individual’s privacy and personal freedom. Consequently there is an increasing interest to design video surveillance systems with built-in privacy protections. This is part of the larger “privacy by design” initiative led by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. This project specifically focuses on event-driven video encryption and decryption. The encrypted footage can only be decrypted and viewed with proper legal authorization. The project will employ existing developments in video analytics to automatically obtain authorization & decrypt the video if an event of interest is happening in the scene, thereby allowing the security personnel to get real time information about the scene. Within the context of video surveillance, such systems, we believe, strike a balance between an individuals need of safety and security and his right to anonymity and privacy.

Faculty Supervisor:

Faisal Qureshi

Student:

PIYUSH DUGAR

Partner:

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

University:

Ontario Tech University

Program:

Globalink