UK boffins put brakes on bike thieves

Researchers at the University of Leeds have unveiled a technology designed to stop bicycle thieves.

The system detects individuals parking their bicycles and can automatically warn security staff if it appears that someone other than the owner retrieves the vehicle.
"It is difficult to monitor CCTV cameras, as operators normally have a large number of screens to watch," said PhD student Dima Damen, from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Leeds.

"This often results in bicycle thefts being missed, even if they are happening right in front of the camera."

Damen's prototype system takes colour information from CCTV images when a bike is parked and stores it until the bike is retrieved.

It then marries the stored information with the new image and can alert CCTV operators when there are significant differences.

Initial tests using a camera located above a bike rack at the University of Leeds detected 11 out of 13 simulated thefts.

"Without a system like this, the benefit of CCTV cameras is diminished by the difficulties of manual monitoring," said Damen. "It is a simple solution to an extremely widespread problem."

Damen is now developing the technology to identify suspicious events in public places, such as baggage in airports.

"Someone intending to leave a suspicious package will not leave it in full view of a CCTV camera, but may leave it in a toilet or behind a pillar," she explained.

"We think we can engineer this technology to recognise people who enter 'flagged' areas with a package or bag but then leave without it, raising an alert for security staff. That is my next challenge."

Over 500,000 bicycles are stolen annually in the UK, only five per cent of which are returned to their owners.