What kind of facilities are large-scale commercial facilities?

What kind of facility is a large-scale commercial facility, and what are its characteristics?

Large-scale commercial facilities used to be centered on supermarkets and other large-scale retail stores, but since the "Large-Scale Retail Store Location Law" came into force in 1998, there has been a rush to open suburban shopping centers. , a huge shopping center was born.
In particular, complex large-scale facilities with many specialty stores, entertainment facilities such as movie theaters, and restaurants, called "mall-type shopping centers," are gaining popularity.

These large-scale facilities are equipped with event spaces and vast parking lots, and are facilities where many customers, men and women of all ages, can enter and exit freely. "Object detection" devices and systems have been introduced.

In addition, terminal stations and airports used by many passengers have the same characteristics as large commercial facilities from the viewpoint of crime prevention and security, so highly accurate "object detection" devices and systems are required. .

Purpose of "object detection" at stations, airports, and large-scale commercial facilities

When developing "object detection" devices and systems in stations, airports, and large-scale commercial facilities, first of all, it is necessary to understand the purpose of introducing "object detection" devices and systems at such facilities. must be

The main purpose of introducing "object detection" devices and systems is to "detect" dangerous objects such as explosives, knives, and firearms in order to prevent accidents and incidents at facilities.
At airports, which serve as gateways to countries and cities, it is also important to "detect" illegal drugs such as stimulants, gold bars, and contraband items such as animals prohibited by the Washington Convention.

Specifically, "millimeter-wave radar," "X-ray baggage inspection," "explosives detection system," and "gate-type metal detector," which can visualize even dangerous items hidden in clothing with high definition. , “Body Scanners”, “Intelligent Video Analysis Systems”, “Drone Detection Systems” and other solutions are utilized.

Stations, airports, and large-scale commercial facilities play a strong role as public spaces, and strengthening their crime prevention measures will lead to safety management for the entire area.

Issues to be solved in the development of millimeter-wave radar

"Millimeter-wave radar" is a high-performance radio-wave imaging device that can visualize even dangerous objects hidden in clothing with high definition by irradiating them with millimeter waves.

It is called "millimeter wave radar" because it uses radio waves in the millimeter wave band (wavelength 1 to 10 mm = frequency 30 to 300 GHz). It has very high-precision sensing capabilities, and millimeter-wave systems operating between 76 and 81 GHz (corresponding to wavelengths of approximately 4 mm) are capable of detecting movements as small as 0.1 mm.

However, in order to improve the detection accuracy, it is necessary to install a huge number of antennas and process a large amount of data.

From now on, the challenge will be how to reduce the number of installed antennas and sensors and how to reduce memory capacity. By doing so, it is possible to reduce the cost and size of equipment and systems, and to improve detection throughput.

In the future, it is predicted that there will be demand for multi-functional devices and systems that integrate cameras and millimeter wave radars.

Problems to be solved by explosives detection system

"Explosive detection system" is a device that can detect high vapor pressure components of organic peroxides used in homemade bombs.

The method of making home-made bombs by synthesizing explosives from everyday items has become widely known.
Even in Japan, it is becoming an indispensable system at stations, airports, and large commercial facilities where many people come and go. However, the current "explosives detection system" has a problem that inspection takes time.

For this reason, companies are developing systems that can detect explosives with high throughput.
In addition to making conventional mass spectrometers more sophisticated, systems are being developed that increase throughput by combining them with intake systems that introduce chemical substances generated from the human body and baggage into the mass spectrometer.

In addition, the introduction of walk-through type is progressing in order to increase convenience. There is a need for a system that can detect explosives at the speed of a person walking.

Problems to be solved by body scanners

“Body scanners” today mainly use millimeter waves.
Millimeter waves are reflected differently depending on the material, so by analyzing the reflected waves, we can find out what the object is. Therefore, it is possible not only to detect if something is hidden under clothes, but also to determine the composition of that object.

The purpose of using "body scanners" is to detect threats hidden in our daily lives at an early stage without interfering with our daily lives and without causing false alarms. To do so, it is necessary to identify suspicious objects in a quick and unobtrusive manner.

So today there is a new type of "body scanner" that allows you to complete a security check simply by walking between two walls.

In addition, a system that incorporates biometric authentication such as face recognition and can be searched for a list of people prohibited from entering or wanted criminals, etc., has been developed. It is evolving into a system that can perform comprehensive security checks, including intrusion detection.

It is important to have a firm grasp of this trend before proceeding with product development.

Issues to be solved by upgrading existing equipment

Millimeter waves are being introduced in place of X-rays for object detection devices and systems, but devices and systems that utilize X-rays are still active in the field as devices that can easily and quickly detect metals. I'm here.

However, X-ray images are very different from what we normally see. Since objects are projected in a special color and transparently, even the same thing can be seen in a wide variety of ways, making it difficult even for experienced people to distinguish the contents.

AI's deep learning has a method called "object detection", which can estimate the type and position of a specific object from an image. After applying processing based on the color characteristics of X-ray images, it is possible to detect objects with high accuracy even in X-ray images by learning images that take into account a wide variety of appearances.

As in this example, it is necessary to be aware of the use of AI in the development of "object detection" devices and systems for large-scale commercial facilities, stations, airports, etc.

Summary

Safety management of large-scale commercial facilities, stations, and airports is not only related to the safety of the facilities concerned, but also to ensuring the safety of the areas where they are located.

Object detection devices and systems are expected to play an important role in preventing accidents and incidents at large-scale facilities.
In addition, in large-scale facilities where an unspecified number of people come and go, speed and certainty of detection, which are conflicting functions, are required. Downsizing and cost reduction of equipment and systems are also essential.

The development of "object detection" devices and systems for stations, airports, and large-scale commercial facilities will continue to be a challenging and promising area.

Detailed information

Articles such as products that can be used for the systems mentioned so far have been published. If you are interested in more information, please read the article.

• [Knowledge required for object detection application development] Episode 1 Confirming the operation of a person detection application with NVIDIA Jetson
• Perfect for embedded devices! High-precision facial recognition software
• Analog Devices 5G, mmWave and Radar Development Platform
• EB5 Edge AI Station
• Face recognition IP LIPSFace
• What is an industrial millimeter-wave radar that is less affected by the environment?
• ITG-100AI

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