The Eyes Have It!

A groundbreaking surveillance system that analyses facial behaviour and temperature to identify smugglers at border control points in real time is being developed at Aberystwyth and Bradford Universities.

Cameras will record people while they are queuing or being questioned at border control points to study facial expression, patterns of eye movements and the degree of dilation of the pupils. Thermal imaging will also be carried out as raised body temperature is an indication of increased blood flow, one of the physiological processes that can occur when someone is attempting to deceive or withhold information.

These behaviours will be isolated by sophisticated image processing equipment and analysed by computer to rapidly highlight people who may be unusually agitated, possibly because they are involved in illegal behaviour, such as smuggling, or have some malicious intent.

Anyone displaying an unusually high number of behaviours associated with deception will be flagged up for further questioning by UK Border Agency (UKBA) staff. In addition to spotting smugglers, the system could also single out people involved in other types of organised crime, such as people trafficking, the importation of illegal drugs or terrorism.

The research project, which is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, sees Aberystwyth and Bradford collaborating with defence technology group QinetiQ as well as the Home Office and the UK Border Agency.

“The main aim of the project is to help UKBA more effectively identify people that carry contraband to reduce the amount entering the country,” says Dr Reyer Zwiggelaar, the project leader and a Senior Lecturer in Aberystwyth University's Department of Computer Science.

“To do this we will be developing and testing a prototype system that will provide dynamic profiling of people in real time, without slowing down the operation of these busy border control areas,” says Zwiggelaar. This system will use video cameras installed in zones where travellers are already advised they are being monitored for security purposes.

Trials of the system will be carried out at various different locations during the project, including airports and seaports, to ensure it will work effectively in a variety of border control points.

Zwiggelaar continues: “Even if there were enough UKBA personnel to analyse facial expressions manually, some behaviour, such as eye movement patterns, might not be easily observed by staff. Other changes, for example slightly increased body temperature, are not even visible to the naked eye.

“Even though this physiological activity can't be easily disguised, spotting it among the many thousands of people going through the busy customs area of a transport terminal every day is virtually impossible. We’re hoping the system will give UKBA staff a massive helping hand,” says Zwiggelaar.

The 2.5-year research project “Facial Analysis for Real Time Profiling” begins on 1 December and is scheduled to end on 31 Mayh 2011. It has received EPSRC funding of £552,679.

The first stage of the work will be to develop a database of facial behaviour, drawn from the general population to act as a baseline against which the changed physiological processes of a smuggler can be accurately identified. A series of interviews with volunteers will be held to collect this information.

Once sufficient baseline data has been collected, the team will focus on ensuring the processing of the data on facial expression, body temperature and eye movement is done quickly enough to provide real time output.

This project is one of five that arose from an ideas exchange week held in December 2007 by the Home Office on the theme of Cargo Screening. The aim was to identify current barriers to effective screening of cargo and initiate some multi-disciplinary projects to overcome them. The EPSRC has invested £2.6 million in the resulting five projects.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK’s main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. The EPSRC invests around £740 million a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone’s health, lifestyle and culture. EPSRC also actively promotes public awareness of science and engineering. EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK.