TransportationAtlanta’s rapid transit deploys AI video analytics to bolster public safety

Behavioral Recognition Systems, Inc. (BRS Labs) said it has added the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) to the list of customers who use AISight, which the company describes as an artificial intelligence-based analytics solution that teaches itself to recognize and alert on unexpected patterns within massive volumes of data.

Public safety is an important issue for mass transit agencies, many of which serve hundreds of millions of customers every year. The potential for a major crisis to occur is always looming in the background. The ability to monitor rail rights of way, boarding platforms, sidewalks, streets, and thousands of passengers in transit at any given point in time may seem daunting, if not impossible.

BRS Labs says that AISight teaches itself to recognize and alert on unexpected behavior across any camera’s field of view, allowing organizations recognize and respond to threats in real time, as opposed to after they occur.

“Our goal is to provide a first class experience for our passengers by integrating a layered security design,” said MARTA’s Sargent Aston Green. “AISight gives us with the ability to more effectively monitor obscure areas for abnormal activities by directing security personnel with real time alerts, thus greatly reducing response times to incidents. Constant surveillance of secure areas is proven to minimize the potential for attacks and breaches; AISight gives us the ability to improve surveillance through artificial intelligence.”

MARTA, the principal rapid-transit system in the Atlanta metropolitan area, is the eighth-largest rapid transit system in the United States by ridership. It operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit system consisting of forty-eight miles of rail track with thirty-eight train stations. MARTA also operates a separate paratransit service for disabled customers. As of 2013, the average total daily ridership for the system (bus and rail) was 415,600 passengers.

“We are excited to announce that MARTA has selected AISight to enhance their public safety initiatives,” said Keith Drummond, Executive Vice President of Sales for BRS Labs. “AISight works with MARTA’s existing camera system to deliver real time alerts so that safety and operations personnel can work with greater precision by focusing on areas where potentially dangerous activity is taking place. We have experienced exponential success in the mass transit industry and are proud that six of the nine largest mass transit agencies in the United States trust BRS Labs to help keep their passengers safe.”