A Metadata-Based Approach for Using CCTV to Facilitate Emergency Response

Abstract

Abstract. The installation of closed-circuit television monitors (CCTV) has been rapidly increasing ever since the September 11 attacks and has become one of the most widely used types of sensors for the tasks that require instantaneous and long-term monitoring. With the distinguished characteristics of direct visual inspection of the subject of interests, the availability of CCTVs offers the EOC commanders a quick way to validate and access the reported disaster incidents during emergency response. However, the heterogeneity of CCTV systems and the lack of appropriate descriptions precludes the optimized use of CCTV and causes immense difficulties in effectively coordinating or appraising the use of CCTV systems. By arguing standardized metadata plays the most crucial role in quickly and precisely finding the needed CCTV during emergency response, regardless of its specifications, suppliers, or locations, we propose an integrated operational framework based on the CCTV metadata specifically designed for emergency response in this paper. This framework standardizes the metadata to unify the descriptions for heterogeneous CCTV systems and fulfill the requirements for searching and selecting CCTV. Instead of the 2D point-based location or sector-based CCTV FOV coverage, we also propose to extend the FOV from 2D to 3D to precisely describe the area and even the features that can be monitored by the CCTV. This not only improves the precision and efficiency of selecting CCTV but also increase the commander’s ability to make quick and accurate responses to disasters. The advantages of integrating heterogeneous CCTV systems can tremendously improve the possibility of monitoring and updating the real-time status caused by hazards.