AMETHYST: automatic alarm assessment: becoming a reality

The aim of the AMETHYST (AutoMatic Event auTHentication SYSTems) project is to encourage the development of a high performance perimeter detection system which combines Video Motion Detection (VMD) technology with another type of Perimeter Intrusion Detection System (PIDS). AMETHYST will automatically assess the cause of all PIDS alarms and pass to an operator only those alarms which are likely to be caused by an intruder. It will, therefore, filter out alarms that are not likely to have a human cause. A previous paper explaining and exploring the AMETHYST concept was presented at the 1995 Carnahan conference. Since then PSDB has produced a single channel AMETHYST demonstrator and placed a contract for the development of an 8 channel prototype AMETHYST system. This updated paper gives details of the hardware and software used with these two systems. Also described is PSDB's approach to the development of AMETHYST's automatic assessment algorithms. These will combine current expertise from Video Motion Detection (VMD) and Intelligent Scene Monitoring (ISM) systems with the unique AMETHYST approach. AMETHYST analyses picture sequences from before and after an alarm instead of continuously analysing live video. Sequences are provided by a Loop Framestore, either connected to or part of the AMETHYST system. The algorithms will be assessed and developed using PSDB's growing collection of over 150 alarm sequences.