Two Depeche Mode concerts in Paris will serve as the first training grounds for algorithmic video surveillance, ahead of the Paris Olympic Games. Further tests will follow.
The Summer Olympic Games will open on July 24, primarily in Paris, but also in a few other cities. Athletes around the world are now fine-tuning their training to be ready for the big day. These final preparations also concern algorithmic video surveillance (VSA). Indeed, she will make her debut in the country imminently.
With less than five months until the Games kick off, a testing opportunity was seized with the holding of two concerts on March 3 and 5, in Paris. Depeche Mode will then perform at the Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy (Accor Arena). During these two days, six VSA cameras will therefore be used. Further tests will take place subsequently.
The choice of Paris-Bercy is not due to chance: this place must precisely host several sports during the competition (basketball, gymnastics and trampoline). Thousands of people are expected. The room, which has a capacity of up to 20,000 seats depending on the event, is a suitable training ground.
Specifically, AFP said, the six cameras will use Wintics software. For this first test, however, algorithmic video surveillance will not be fully deployed. The Ministry of the Interior clarified this point in February, in its latest news. Limitations which should evolve over the course of future tests.
A configuration test, without exploitation
For now, this experiment “ prohibits facial recognition and any form of cross-checking with files », underlines Place Beauvau. It’s just a ” first integration of these solutions, for the sole purpose of configuration, without operational use. » It is the Paris Police Prefecture which oversees this.
Wintics is a Parisian company specializing in the analysis of video streams for statistical purposes. She collected two of the four lots during the ministry’s call for tenders. The VSA is no stranger to it: its algorithms are already used in around fifty communities to produce indicators on mobility.
Specifically, it involves counting bikes, scooters, or trucks. The company has also used its technologies to detect free parking spaces in car parks. Know-how now available for safer missions, particularly in restricted or prohibited areas.
The implementation of algorithmic video surveillance contributes to the effort of public authorities to ensure the security of the Olympic Games – an event of international scope which will mobilize very large numbers of law enforcement personnel, but also private security and the army, in order to manage the entire spectrum of threats.
For algorithmic video surveillance, eight events are retained:
- failure to respect the direction of traffic;
- crossing or presence in a sensitive or prohibited area;
- crowd movement ;
- too high a density of people;
- abandoned packages;
- presence or use of weapons;
- person on the ground;
- fire outbreaks.
The use of algorithmic video surveillance, which combines artificial intelligence and surveillance cameras, has been widely observed and commented on since its appearance in the public and political debate. The controversy remains heated despite the adoption of the law of May 19, 2023 which authorizes and legally regulates the use of this type of technology.
A controversy all the greater since this automatic surveillance of the crowd is likely to be extended beyond the Games – and, therefore, to make it a commonplace technology, with no return. If today, this VSA is done without facial recognition, some already fear a possible extension, since we have already put our finger in the gear.
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