Active laser detection system for recognizing surveillance devices

Abstract In recent years, we have seen proliferation in the presence of surveillance devices such as cameras and commercial unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs). These devices have posed ever-increasing security threats. This paper proposes an active laser detection system to counter surveillance components by exploiting cat-eye effect. We first establish a cat-eye target detection model and the calculation results show that our proposals are capable of achieving results comparable to those generated by thermal detection systems but more cost effective. We also investigate the properties of reflected spots generated by cat-eye targets, and formulate corresponding recognition criteria. Using our hardware platform and the proposed algorithms, our experiments produce the recognition of static cat-eye targets at a wide range of operating distances, as well as the real-time identification of moving cat-eye targets. These results have not been achieved before, to the best of our knowledge. The entire system can be applied not only for the detection of a wide categories of stationary monitoring targets with cat-eye configurations including cameras and optical sights, but also for tracking and confronting moving surveillance devices such as UAVs.