Video systems for improving port and shipping safety

Abstract

Paper presented at the 28th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 6 - 9 July 2009 "Sustainable Transport", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.This paper describes how video and digital imaging systems can be used to support safe port operations, especially in developing countries. Digital images of preset video locations can be geo-referenced and then archived for later analysis to improve efficiencies and review any safety threats or breaches occurring inside or outside the port. Significant advances in digital image technology have made it easier to capture, store, transmit and analyse large amounts of information via the recording and manipulation of digital images. The high resolution of the images and the improved capacity and speed of personal computers has improved our ability to handle the large quantities of data contained in the digital images. Smart software has been written to interrogate the images (pixel by pixel) to extract the relevant information, which can then be stored or transmitted via radio or microwave link to conventional telecommunications networks when required.