Overview

What is Loitering Detection?
Loitering Detection is the ability of the surveillance system to track a person in the view of the camera and alert the security personnel when the person stays in the area longer than expected. This would indicate that the person might be loitering there.

How does it work?
Imagine the situation at the street nearby the ATM machine. People pass by all the time. Some of them would stop and operate the ATM for a short period of time and then leave. Suddenly, there is a person standing nearby the ATM and not leaving. The surveillance system is able to distinguish that person from all the other people who come and go thanks to the individual tracking capability of every person in the view.

How is the system configured for loitering detection?
Depending on the location, the loitering can be defined as dwelling in the area more than a specific amount of time. The operator can set the time limit to be 2 minutes, for example. When the person is detected, the system will start the time counter for that object. If that person leaves within 2 minutes, there will be no alarm. If the person is still there after 2 minutes then the system will trigger an alarm. The operator can then review the situation and take further actions if necessary.

Applications

There would be lots of locations where the loitering is considered a security risk. For example the street around the school, the entrances of the buildings, the area around the ATM machine and more. The AI-powered automatic loitering detection can minimize such security risks by the early warning.

Solutions

It is possible to use ACTi's Loitering Detection cameras together with ACTi's ZNR-series NVR or with Windows-based NVR 3 servers. The VMS will receive the loitering detection alerts from the cameras and handle the events by video pop-up, sound alert, sending an email alert and more.

Furthermore, some of the latest ZNR-series NVR servers have the built-in Loitering Detection capability - it is possible to use a regular surveillance camera without built-in AI and still run the loitering detection thanks to the NVR-side AI capabilities.
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