System IDs people by the way they walk

A recognition system may soon help track individuals though a TV-monitored area by analyzing the way they walk, British researchers say. The National Physical Laboratory, working with the Center for Advanced Software Technology, the BBC and BAE Systems, has developed technology that improves spatial awareness for closed-circuit TV and security systems. A test system combining a computer model of the NPL building on the outskirts of London with feeds from CCTV cameras placed around the site can record a person's gait signature, or specific walk, check where else that person has been in the building, and display the results in the computer model, the NPL reported Thursday. Live video feeds from cameras monitoring the physical space record a gait signature when an individual passes by the cameras, separating the fixed background and the moving subject during the natural cycle of walking to form silhouettes. Measurements are taken of the rise and fall of head height between each silhouette, a pattern that can be represented by a set of numbers in a computer, researchers said. The system could have many uses, they said, including identifying crime suspects captured on CCTV systems by the way they walk.