OPTAG - Improving Airport Efficiency, Security and Passenger Flow by Enhanced Passenger Monitoring
Overview
Background & policy context:
Up to 5% of aircraft departure delays are caused by late passengers or late bags at the gate, and the impact of this in missed slots and subsequent costs will increase as the number of flights increases.
The OpTag system will enable the immediate location of checked-in passengers who are either missing or late, and thus reduce passenger-induced delays and speed up aircraft turn around. The system could also form an essential component of Airline passenger identification and threat assessment systems through the automated identification of suspicious passenger movements or through the closer monitoring of individuals considered to pose a risk to secure operations.
Objectives:
The three main developments required to create the OpTag system are:
- a compact far-field radio frequency identification (RFID) tag and a reader capable of reading a large quantity of tags within its range without interference;
- a high-resolution, panoramic imaging system and corresponding software to follow a target and confirm the identity of the tagged individual or item. The system will be able to work over a network and allow different operators to select different views from the same camera;
- an ergonomic user interface to facilitate augmented surveillance, monitoring and targeting of individuals who may pose an economic or security risk to effective airport operations.
The security and efficiency environment of airports was also researched so that the Optag system could be understood in context and developed to meet real requirements and with full understanding of the legal and operational factors and IP of the design.
Methodology:
In order to achieve these objectives, the work focused on:
Tag Development: A compact, active tag was developed with an expected range of at least 10 metres and which will work in conjunction with new readers to provide direction and range finding.
Camera Hardware Development: A digital camera system was developed which consists of 8 camera sensors mounted in a ring. The outputs from the sensors will be combined and processed to provide a single 360 degree high resolution panoramic image.
Image processing Software Development: Software was developed which will process the output from the panoramic cameras and transmit the images over a network in such a way that individual views and zooms may be selected by a remote operators.
Final Integration and Airport Trial: A man-machine interface to control the image selection was developed and trialed along with an interface to the tag tracking system so that an operator can track and identify a person on a monitor view. Four camera systems were installed in a small airport so that experiments could be undertaken on the performance of the system in a real life environment.
Exploitation: Covering IP management along with research into airport organisation. In addition, the legal and ethical framework of the operation of a passenger tracking system will be studied.
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