Students from IIT Madras have developed a technology that uses artificial intelligence to identify stone pelters in Jammu and Kashmir for the security personals of the Indian Army.
By using footages from the CCTV cameras, action recognition algorithms, live imaging and crowd density map, the device will be able to predict any unusual event, including the occurrence of stone pelting.
“We think it could help the Indian Army that faces such attacks regularly in J&K,” S Raghav Vaidyanathan, student executive head, Centre for Innovation, IIT-Madras told a leading national daily. In order to ascertain its effectiveness and to know more about its on ground deployment, a team of army officers will reportedly be visiting IIT-M’s Centre for Innovation soon.
The number of stone pelting cases have been on the rise in J&K, killing as many as three army men and a tourist in 2018 alone. An act of criminal assault, it has been increasingly taken up by Kashmiri youths to distract army men on duty in order to help local militants escape.
The device was developed by the students as part of Army Technology Seminar- 2019, where they took part in the crowd analysis project recently. The event which was held on January 11 in Delhi, brought together military, academia and industry experts under one roof to find technological solutions for the army requirements.
“The academic and industry keep coming up with innovations. Some of these have already been adopted and others are being considered or tested. Out of the 130 problem statements identified by us, we have received responses to about 100,” said an official.
While speaking about the usefulness of AI-based prediction tools in localities which face regular stand-offs between the army and pelters, former army vice-chief Lieutenant General AS Lamba said, “Such innovations could lead to a good solution in the long term.”
Recently, the army has been vocal about its plan to deploy new age technologies like artificial intelligence and drone technologies for scaling up their operation. On 2 January, the Ministry of Defence had announced a ₹73.9 crore project undertaken by the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) to study the implications of AI in National security and defence needs.
