Smile, You're On E-Candid CameraSmile, You're On E-Candid Camera

T he days of employees doodling, dozing, and playing Minesweeper may be near an end. Mubarak Shah, a professor of computer science and director of the Computer Vision Lab at the University of Central Florida, is developing software that can track and record what people do while they work.

"You can tell if someone is just drinking coffee all the time and not working," says Shah, "or if a suspicious person enters the office and is working at someone else's computer."

The system watches an office using digital video cameras at various places in rooms and does real-time image recognition and tracking of what's happening. It can follow people around the office, tell when they pick something up, use a phone, or type at a computer. As people work (or don't), the system writes a script describing each of their actions.

No need to worry about privacy issues just yet--Shah says it'll be at least five to 10 years before the system is sophisticated enough to process the countless complex behaviors of a real-world office. But less complex, process-oriented systems should be available within a year or so. One such application could keep an eye on an assembly process--say, putting together burgers at your local fast-food joint--and monitor workers to make sure they get all the ingredients right.

The system could also be used to monitor security cameras, keeping an eye out for people fighting, stealing, or rioting. Cameras installed in cars could monitor driver alertness by watching eye motion and head tilt and movement.

Shah's lab is working with the Florida Department of Transportation to develop a system that will watch railway crossings to make sure that the gates are closed and cars are out of the way before trains pass through.