Final Report Summary - VASCO (a Virtual Studio for Security Concepts and Operations)
Executive Summary:
VASCO aims to assist security professionals to visualize, define, and assess security concepts and measures for the protection of government buildings and critical infrastructure. This is achieved by the virtualisation of building and environment models which contain adequate geometric features to enable simulations and sufficient visual information to support location recognition. VASCO assists security experts and Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) officers with a visual representation of the buildings to protect within their urban environment, combined with geographical details; such as roads, nearby buildings of potential relevance, critical infrastructures, and moreover, architectural information, such as a building lay-out , exits, windows, entrances, other access points, parking, garage, etc. These features provide security experts from different backgrounds with a shared picture of the building and its surroundings, facilitating the joint formulation of an integral approach.
The VASCO project offers a technical solution in three distinct but complementary tools: the 4DNSIDE suite, the VASCO framework, and the Natural User Interface.
The 4DNSIDE suite’s objective is to enable any user to reconstruct DMUs of buildings without requiring the assistance of computer experts, 3D modellers, or CAD operators. Its architecture is composed of three modules, namely an acquisition module, a processing module, and a viewer module. These modules implement the pipeline which enables the end user to obtain a three dimensional representation that can be viewed inside a web browser starting from a set of panoramic pictures.
The VASCO framework aimed at researching, designing, and implementing the two main functionalities presented to the user, i.e. the DMU Editor and the Security Editor. The DMU Editor allows a user to construct a visual representation of his/her environment, as a visual reference, in two stages. The first stage is to create the surroundings of the desired facility, by aggregating satellite, planes, cadastral imagery, and other geographic information. On the second stage, the user can create the interiors and façade of the facility and insert it into its previously created surrounding environment.
The Security Editor enables a user to construct security concepts, measures, and strategies. It is based on an innovative simulation engine where a user can create security and safety situations thanks to the orchestration of virtual equipment, individuals, groups, crowds, events and threats, which are all managed in a dynamic and world scale environment. These two novel editors are linked thanks to the Knowledge Database which enables to store and share the created DMUs and security concepts.
The Natural User Interface (NUI) constitutes the interface between end-users and the VASCO Framework and offers the visualisation modality and effective interaction techniques that make the VASCO system intuitively usable by professional end-users without prior extensive training or explanation. The main NUI component is an interactive tabletop that eases the design process of security planning and the collaboration between all stakeholders during such sessions. The tabletop features a multi-windows environment hosting the collaboration session and the possibility of building bridges with personal devices.
Complementary tangible objects have been produced to facilitate the measurement on the map by imitating the real modus operandi of a ruler and a protractor. And, finally, a disruptive prototype based on an Augmented Reality Headset, namely the HoloLens, provides extended 3D visualization capabilities.
In order to bring the VASCO project to fruition, the consortium adopted an integration planning and strategy early on. The planning included 4 releases that, once evaluated, produced feedback included in the requirements of the following version. This allowed producing results with distinct boundaries, without technical overlap but rather a complete workflow, and integrating them into a unified system, including hardware, software, and user manual.
Project Context and Objectives:
The concentration of government buildings within urban environments has become a source of serious security vulnerability. Administrators and security experts face a variety of evolving threats that are hard to anticipate. To secure a government building against multiple threats while maintaining a minimal level of transparency and accessibility requires an integral security approach. It demands interdisciplinary collaboration between different experts from different domains. Currently, there is no efficient method or tool that allows the experts of different stripes to efficiently design, evaluate, and implement appropriate security concepts. Existing ones do not allow for the effective creation, analysis, assessment, and sharing of security concepts that will help government administrators provide a secure environment for personnel and citizens.
The VASCO project addressed two important objectives. First, it designed, implemented, and evaluated an innovative IT tool that enables security professionals and administrators to jointly formulate, test, and adjust security concepts and measures in a virtual environment. This provides a cost-effective and risk-free environment in which to conceive an evidence-based, all-risk approach for the protection of government buildings. Second, it produced a knowledge and best practice database, which captures dynamic and visual reference scenarios created with the VASCO system.
To accomplish these aims, the project adopted an iterative methodology enabling the constant involvement of its world-class security and crisis management experts, assisted by a solid and open user group, during the whole project. It made use of the latest advances in interactive visualisation, simulation, crisis management, and artificial intelligence to provide end-users with a new tool that significantly improves the way in which they collaborate to secure critical government assets both at home and abroad.
The main objectives of the VASCO project were the following:
- Produce a comprehensive analysis of current security concepts, measures and threats, working methods, tools, as well as relevant technologies and standards;
- Take into account end-user requirements during all phases of the project;
- Provision two releases of VASCO integrating all the project’s components. Each release then entered an evaluation phase, carried out by end-users on real-world scenarios, which provided feedback for the next release of the system;
- Producing a knowledge base for integral security of government buildings as well as evaluating VASCO impact in real conditions;
- Communicate the research results to the scientific community;
- Establish the conditions for a successful commercialisation of the project’s outcomes;
- Meet the project’s deadlines and deliver high quality deliverables.
Project Results:
1. User Requirements, Security Concepts, Scenarios & Functional Specifications
In order to define the VASCO project’s orientation, definition work was conducted around 3 objectives:
- To gather end-user requirements from the user group members and the security experts;
- To perform working methods analysis;
- To specify the whole VASCO concepts and functionalities.
This work was done using an iterative process where the end-user requirements and the system specifications are refined thanks to the results analysis of validation tasks. During the first half of the project, this was focused on:
- Engage leading security professional and potential users from various countries, with diverse economical, ethical backgrounds, as diverse security orientation and operational duties.
- The latest developments in Government Asset Protection were captured and examined in detail. Then they were adapted to fit the VASCO solution innovative approach. The innovations and the enhancements of the VASCO studio were compared with similar work performed and similarities with other industry available solutions were noted.
- Based on interviews and expert panel sessions, the current security approaches in Government buildings and critical infrastructures were analysed. The outcome of this analysis has formed the project technical guidelines. The latter ensures the needs and wants of security end-users will be considered and materialised with the VASCO end product, leading to an innovative security solution.
During the second half, VASCO partners iteratively processed results, and focused their work on refining both the end-user requirements and the system specifications.
Specifically, the final user requirements were based on input obtained in the evaluation process at the Beta Release workshop (Stockholm, September 2015). After having interacted with the system, end users filled questionnaires which were analysed to confirm, validate, and expand the final list of user requirements. This list is the benchmark for the end-product of the VASCO project assessment.
A state-of-the-art on security concepts for government asset protection was produced to illustrate the security practises from EU countries applicable to government buildings/facilities protection, including critical infrastructure. Moreover, it includes a comparison of the aforementioned practices against National Protection Plans and National or Continental Directives and an in-depth literature review and an analysis of security decision maker’s interviews.
This led to the creation of a final release refined scenarios & specifications document that presents four refined scenarios that will serve as guidelines to demonstrate the benefits of the VASCO system to the security industry. These scenarios highlight major features of the system, such as the creation of a virtual replica of a governmental facility, its surrounding, and the validation of the current security measures.
2. Reconstruction of a Digital Mock-Up
In order to enable study security concepts in a building, the VACO project needed to provide a reliable and cost effective solution to the problem of reconstructing and visualizing indoor scenes, to be used by people with no particular background on ICT and without requiring intensive, if any, training. The role of reconstruction and visualisation modules is to support security experts to visually define and assess concepts and measures for the protection of buildings.
Computer Vision techniques that mix image based reconstruction with Inertial Measurements Unit, implementing novel algorithms that allow a non-expert user to reconstruct a whole building floor with an off-the-shelf smartphone and then to inspect said floor within a web browser. The algorithm has been deployed in three main applications:
- Mobile Capture: An Android mobile application to acquire the geometry of an indoor floor plan and to create a navigable graph of the scene.
- 4DNSIDE Scene Processor: A complementary desktop tool to reconstruct the geometry of the acquired floor plan based only on images and positioning sensor data
- 4DNSIDE Net Viewer: Networked viewer for navigation inside the reconstructed scene.
The research has also been described in international peer reviewed conference papers [ABBCGKP16], [PGS16], [PGGS16], [PGGAG15], [PG14]. Further research has been carried out in the same topic, more specifically devising a new algorithm for the acquisition of indoor furniture [GPGGS16].
After evaluation at the end of the first period of the project, the work has been focused on several aspects of the 4DNSIDE pipeline, all revolving about robustness of the single parts of the pipeline, improvement of the usability for non-technical people, support for integration with the DMU Editor and meeting end user constraints that emerged during end user workshops. A special effort has been also put on disseminating the results of the research activities by publishing 4 more papers all in international peer reviewed conferences.
At the end of the project, the pipeline described above is fully functional and ready to be deployed either as a module of the VASCO system or on its own, as a complete tool for fast reconstruction and visualization of indoor environments, see the pipeline in Figure 1.
3. The VASCO Framework
The VASCO Framework is the ground basis of the project’s technical solution as it uses or is used by the other components. It includes a network layer, visualisation services, simulation engine, virtual equipments, and also the Software Development Kit for the NUI to control the Framework. Three tools have been developed with clear boundaries to enable end-users to elaborate security concepts and measures:
- he DMU Editor: enables users to create the indoor and outdoor digital representation, or mock up, of the targeted buildings along with their geographical environment, in much detail.
- The Security Editor: enables users to leverage the assets previously created with the DMU Editor that can furthermore be visually filtered to focus on desired elements. Users can elaborate security measures on top of these assets, then evaluate and assess the result with dedicated features. This is possible thanks to a custom simulation engine where virtual equipment, individuals, groups, crowds, events and threats are managed in a dynamic and world scale environment, see Figure 2.The Knowledge Database: the DMUs, the security concepts and measures including the virtual equipments, confronted against multiple threats, supported by documents such as law regulations or procedures, are all stored in a central repository and made easily accessible to collaborators. Furthermore, these stored results can be used for briefing or debriefing phases.
Both of the editors of the VASCO framework have been designed iteratively, quickly providing releases that were evaluated by end user, which provided precious feedback that was considered carefully for the following releases. Therefore, user satisfaction has been at the heart of the conception of these tools. As a result, the Final Release delivered near the end of the project fully satisfied the VASCO end users by providing a complete workflow from the DMU Editor to the Security Editor, all thanks to the integrated Knowledge Database.
In addition, project-custom APIs and exchange formats have been defined to enable the other technical components to communicate and exchange information. This set of features constitutes the VASCO Framework SDK.
4. The Natural User Interface
The natural user interface goal was to research, design, and implement interfaces and techniques ensuring efficient interaction with the VASCO framework but also a real commitment of users in the design of security plan with VASCO solutions. This embracement of users should have increased the commercial success of the VASCO outputs.
The result of this work is a clever mix of hardware and software solutions which enables to intuitively interact with the VASCO framework in a collaborative working environment. These solutions should meet challenges of contemporary collaborative areas: the interconnection of our modern-day world and the needs of cooperation between multiple experts.
The first half of the project has allowed the research and development of the primary component of the VASCO User Interface: the interactive surface for the collaboration with the VASCO Framework. Studies were followed by tests and evaluations to create a first set of prototypes of tangible objects.
After the validation of the first results during workshops, the second half of the project was focused on pushing forward the primary components of the VASCO User Interface considering user’s feedbacks and technological progress. This led to the following main results:
- Enhancement of performance (integration, collaborative software, hardware);
- Delivery of tangible toolsets;
- Delivery of annotation application on windows tablet;
- Delivery of a HoloLens application in order to perceive 3D mock-up on the tabletop.
- Production of 3 toolkits software (Low Latency streaming, Annotation, HoloLens).
The mix of the VASCO Framework with the results of the User Interface will be an additional argument to convince future customers to invest in such a system designed to be consistent with their working processes. These components are modular and can be composed in a turnkey solution.
5. Project’s integration
The technical work of the project has been overseen by a thorough integration of the technical components. This integration step was done in an iterative process planned around the two project’s main milestones: the Beta Release and the Final Release. In order to meet these milestones on time, the consortium decided to add two internal releases, i.e. the Alpha and PreFinal Releases, to better track the progress of the project.
The main results of the work achieved in this work-package are as follows:
- A single and integrated system containing the research and development work of technical packages;
- A single comprehensive and integrated user manual;
- The installation of the VASCO system on the successive evaluation sites during three end user workshops.
Each integration phase lasted 4 months. However, much work prior to these phases was necessary to ensure a successful integration. Thanks to an early defined integration strategy, pre-integration meetings and to committed partners, the integration, validation, documentation, and on-site installation were effectively achieved for all the releases.
6. Integral Security Knowledge
This effort began since the start of the VASCO project and continued throughout the project’s 3-year lifespan. It was focused on the creation and assessment of security concepts and measures developed by the VASCO consortium. Furthermore, it defined the structure of the Knowledge Database, which allows users to access valuable security concepts for government asset protection, to store, revise and improve past sessions, and draw from lessons learned.
The partners delivered two versions of a report on integral security concepts and the knowledge database. In the first version of this document, the three situations created to demonstrate the VASCO functionalities were analysed in light of the advantages VASCO brings over traditional approaches to securing critical buildings. Adopting a slightly different perspective, the second version portrays how the VASCO idea evolved from its conceptualisation to the final release of the system, addressing the improvements made by the consortium in terms of technical solutions and mirroring the needs of security professionals.
Building on the valuable feedback provided by external end-users, this document discusses the uses of VASCO in the security domain.
Potential Impact:
1. Expected impact
The final results of the VASCO project research and development work are an all forming one studio, from hardware to software solution, enabling security experts, non-technical and not necessarily trained persons, to capture the inside and outside of a facility, to design security concepts and measures on top of the digital environment. The proposed technical solution provides a collaborative, risk-safe, and user friendly environment which favours cooperative security design as well as means to store these security designs and to share this knowledge with collaborators. The potential impact is the ability to easily, quickly, and without costly specialized hardware and competences, acquire new facilities. Furthermore, the potential impact is to ease and speed up the design and assessment of security concepts by collaborating and sharing security knowledge.
The VASCO system adds value to the process of designing security for government buildings and other critical infrastructure sites. The ability to work within an accurate virtual 3D mock-up of a building allows users to fine-tune security in a way that was not previously possible. The work contributes to the creation of new security concepts, as well as the opportunity to store and reuse lessons learned through the Knowledge Database. After creating an exact replica of a specific building, users can consider various security aspects, both indoors and outdoors, thus taking into consideration the role of the surrounding environment, which likely includes additional critical buildings and/or a dense urban environment and population. More specifically, VASCO can be used for creating general building security, security related to a specific threat, evacuation plans, as well as for mission planning, briefings, after action reports, or risk assessments. The feedback received confirms the need for a solution like the one proposed by the VASCO consortium; in other words, a virtual platform which will be inherently linked to the end user’s daily operations.
The VASCO project was end-user driven, striving to create a system that adds value to current approaches to security design and assessment, constant effort was dedicated to obtaining feedback from end-users and to find appropriate ways to implement it in order to ensure that the development of VASCO led towards an optimal end product. Presentations were done all along the project to end user in order to evaluate the system, see Figure 5. The deliverables produced offered transparency to this process by showing how end users impacted technical work and triggered improvements. Moreover, they offered guidelines on how VASCO can be used in the building security domain (down to details on specific functionalities), and are informative on the advantages the system brings when compared to traditional approached to security.
VASCO has two primary audiences, both with different responsibilities: security teams (of the building) and interdisciplinary response teams. Current state of the art security approaches is that operators, asset managers, policy makers tend to identify threats and vulnerabilities within their domain of responsibility. Building security teams focus inward, becoming experts on the particular threats that pertain to their domain. They place and monitor the security cameras, ensure entrances are protected, consider evacuation routes, identify possible areas where security could be breached, among many other security related tasks. Thus, VASCO is able to accurately capture interdependencies across different environments and functions of buildings with a focus on resilience.
Interdisciplinary response teams, on the other hand, must consider wider public safety concerns. While their responsibilities may take them inside buildings during a crisis, the information they need may be limited to practical information such as the building layout. Response teams will benefit from familiarizing themselves with the inside of a building, but must also consider the area surrounding the building. For example, when a world leader visits premises, response teams must consider the best route for a motorcade, which streets should be blocked off, where snipers can be positioned, where protesters may gather, standby positions and possible routes for ambulances, and make such logistical decisions.
Possible scenario variations can be beneficial for end-users to gain almost real life expertise. Lessons learned from scenario rehearsals will provide knowledge added value to VASCO users. As such, enhanced police tactics are envisioned. Moreover, recommendations concerning police equipment and surveillance infrastructure can be made available based on the VASCO interactions.
Evacuation procedures can be optimised, thus saving time and effort. Only the final plan needs testing to verify the situation and check the simulation outcomes against the simulation results.
In addition, VASCO offers cost saving in the following manner; Using DMU, security experts can contribute to Government building and Critical infrastructure security without visiting the site (or) with one site visit. The creation (or validation) of a security plan can take place remotely (or with the minimum allowed site visits). Moreover, VASCO allows expert collaboration from diverse fields to contribute or validate the plans.
Finally, VASCO will have contributed to further new projects and applications by providing a state of the art system and publish scientific research work for indoor digitisation, indoor exploration and IT collaborative design systems that extend beyond the scope of security.
The 4DNside pipeline has proven to be a simple and powerful tool which can be expected to impact positively on the usability and utility of fast reconstruction and visualization of indoor environments. A straightforward example may be for real estate agencies to present houses to the clients. The result of 4DNside can also be seen as an enhancement of the standard cadastral maps which are currently used in public administrations, for example for including a 4DNside representation for museums and, more generally, places open to the public.
In the same way, the collaborative platform’s components, by being modular and combinable in a turnkey solution, could be used to enhance collaboration and coordination in many domains, including but not limited to security and safety planning.
2. Dissemination and exploitation
The project’s dissemination and exploitation work began with the planning of the dissemination and the exploitation activities steps for the three years of the project. Exhibitions and scientific conferences were targeted, while each consortium partner determined its exploitation intents. The detailed plans were described in two iterations of the dissemination and use plan.
In addition materials intended for the dissemination activities were designed:
- VASCO project logo: included in all project dissemination materials;
- VASCO Illustrations: a schematic representation of the expected technical results to be used for dissemination purposes;
- VASCO Flyer: overviews the project objectives, the features and targeted use cases;
- VASCO Notebook: given to external end-users to take notes during workshops, respecting the VASCO graphical chart;
- VASCO Project Presentation: slides enabling consortium members to present the project with a common language and point of view;
- VASCO YouTube channel to spread all videos produced during the project
- VASCO "Brief your intervention" video: presents in animation the key features of the VASCO Framework (https://youtu.be/6n3g5qYkWxc);
- VASCO project presentation roll up, an attractive poster putting forward the main concepts of the project;
- VASCO presentation video, illustrating the project functionalities and objectives (https://youtu.be/Fl-gEK58a6w).
These materials defined a ground basis for the consortium to prepare workshops with external end-users and introduce the whole range of functionalities available in the successive releases of the VASCO project. During the project’s lifespan, four workshops were organised to evaluate and communicate on its progress. As the last one of the project, the End User Workshop #4 was focused on dissemination; all the partners were set on presenting the final release of VASCO.
Throughout the entire project a strong focus was put on scientific dissemination where thirteen articles were published in high quality conferences and journals, including two consortium joint papers.
List of Websites:
The public website is up to date and accessible at the following address http://vasco.diginext.fr/. Any inquiry can be addressed to the coordinator of the project, Diginext. If needed, it will be dispatched to the corresponding consortium member. The mail address for these inquiries is: vasco@diginext.fr
VASCO aims to assist security professionals to visualize, define, and assess security concepts and measures for the protection of government buildings and critical infrastructure. This is achieved by the virtualisation of building and environment models which contain adequate geometric features to enable simulations and sufficient visual information to support location recognition. VASCO assists security experts and Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) officers with a visual representation of the buildings to protect within their urban environment, combined with geographical details; such as roads, nearby buildings of potential relevance, critical infrastructures, and moreover, architectural information, such as a building lay-out , exits, windows, entrances, other access points, parking, garage, etc. These features provide security experts from different backgrounds with a shared picture of the building and its surroundings, facilitating the joint formulation of an integral approach.
The VASCO project offers a technical solution in three distinct but complementary tools: the 4DNSIDE suite, the VASCO framework, and the Natural User Interface.
The 4DNSIDE suite’s objective is to enable any user to reconstruct DMUs of buildings without requiring the assistance of computer experts, 3D modellers, or CAD operators. Its architecture is composed of three modules, namely an acquisition module, a processing module, and a viewer module. These modules implement the pipeline which enables the end user to obtain a three dimensional representation that can be viewed inside a web browser starting from a set of panoramic pictures.
The VASCO framework aimed at researching, designing, and implementing the two main functionalities presented to the user, i.e. the DMU Editor and the Security Editor. The DMU Editor allows a user to construct a visual representation of his/her environment, as a visual reference, in two stages. The first stage is to create the surroundings of the desired facility, by aggregating satellite, planes, cadastral imagery, and other geographic information. On the second stage, the user can create the interiors and façade of the facility and insert it into its previously created surrounding environment.
The Security Editor enables a user to construct security concepts, measures, and strategies. It is based on an innovative simulation engine where a user can create security and safety situations thanks to the orchestration of virtual equipment, individuals, groups, crowds, events and threats, which are all managed in a dynamic and world scale environment. These two novel editors are linked thanks to the Knowledge Database which enables to store and share the created DMUs and security concepts.
The Natural User Interface (NUI) constitutes the interface between end-users and the VASCO Framework and offers the visualisation modality and effective interaction techniques that make the VASCO system intuitively usable by professional end-users without prior extensive training or explanation. The main NUI component is an interactive tabletop that eases the design process of security planning and the collaboration between all stakeholders during such sessions. The tabletop features a multi-windows environment hosting the collaboration session and the possibility of building bridges with personal devices.
Complementary tangible objects have been produced to facilitate the measurement on the map by imitating the real modus operandi of a ruler and a protractor. And, finally, a disruptive prototype based on an Augmented Reality Headset, namely the HoloLens, provides extended 3D visualization capabilities.
In order to bring the VASCO project to fruition, the consortium adopted an integration planning and strategy early on. The planning included 4 releases that, once evaluated, produced feedback included in the requirements of the following version. This allowed producing results with distinct boundaries, without technical overlap but rather a complete workflow, and integrating them into a unified system, including hardware, software, and user manual.
Project Context and Objectives:
The concentration of government buildings within urban environments has become a source of serious security vulnerability. Administrators and security experts face a variety of evolving threats that are hard to anticipate. To secure a government building against multiple threats while maintaining a minimal level of transparency and accessibility requires an integral security approach. It demands interdisciplinary collaboration between different experts from different domains. Currently, there is no efficient method or tool that allows the experts of different stripes to efficiently design, evaluate, and implement appropriate security concepts. Existing ones do not allow for the effective creation, analysis, assessment, and sharing of security concepts that will help government administrators provide a secure environment for personnel and citizens.
The VASCO project addressed two important objectives. First, it designed, implemented, and evaluated an innovative IT tool that enables security professionals and administrators to jointly formulate, test, and adjust security concepts and measures in a virtual environment. This provides a cost-effective and risk-free environment in which to conceive an evidence-based, all-risk approach for the protection of government buildings. Second, it produced a knowledge and best practice database, which captures dynamic and visual reference scenarios created with the VASCO system.
To accomplish these aims, the project adopted an iterative methodology enabling the constant involvement of its world-class security and crisis management experts, assisted by a solid and open user group, during the whole project. It made use of the latest advances in interactive visualisation, simulation, crisis management, and artificial intelligence to provide end-users with a new tool that significantly improves the way in which they collaborate to secure critical government assets both at home and abroad.
The main objectives of the VASCO project were the following:
- Produce a comprehensive analysis of current security concepts, measures and threats, working methods, tools, as well as relevant technologies and standards;
- Take into account end-user requirements during all phases of the project;
- Provision two releases of VASCO integrating all the project’s components. Each release then entered an evaluation phase, carried out by end-users on real-world scenarios, which provided feedback for the next release of the system;
- Producing a knowledge base for integral security of government buildings as well as evaluating VASCO impact in real conditions;
- Communicate the research results to the scientific community;
- Establish the conditions for a successful commercialisation of the project’s outcomes;
- Meet the project’s deadlines and deliver high quality deliverables.
Project Results:
1. User Requirements, Security Concepts, Scenarios & Functional Specifications
In order to define the VASCO project’s orientation, definition work was conducted around 3 objectives:
- To gather end-user requirements from the user group members and the security experts;
- To perform working methods analysis;
- To specify the whole VASCO concepts and functionalities.
This work was done using an iterative process where the end-user requirements and the system specifications are refined thanks to the results analysis of validation tasks. During the first half of the project, this was focused on:
- Engage leading security professional and potential users from various countries, with diverse economical, ethical backgrounds, as diverse security orientation and operational duties.
- The latest developments in Government Asset Protection were captured and examined in detail. Then they were adapted to fit the VASCO solution innovative approach. The innovations and the enhancements of the VASCO studio were compared with similar work performed and similarities with other industry available solutions were noted.
- Based on interviews and expert panel sessions, the current security approaches in Government buildings and critical infrastructures were analysed. The outcome of this analysis has formed the project technical guidelines. The latter ensures the needs and wants of security end-users will be considered and materialised with the VASCO end product, leading to an innovative security solution.
During the second half, VASCO partners iteratively processed results, and focused their work on refining both the end-user requirements and the system specifications.
Specifically, the final user requirements were based on input obtained in the evaluation process at the Beta Release workshop (Stockholm, September 2015). After having interacted with the system, end users filled questionnaires which were analysed to confirm, validate, and expand the final list of user requirements. This list is the benchmark for the end-product of the VASCO project assessment.
A state-of-the-art on security concepts for government asset protection was produced to illustrate the security practises from EU countries applicable to government buildings/facilities protection, including critical infrastructure. Moreover, it includes a comparison of the aforementioned practices against National Protection Plans and National or Continental Directives and an in-depth literature review and an analysis of security decision maker’s interviews.
This led to the creation of a final release refined scenarios & specifications document that presents four refined scenarios that will serve as guidelines to demonstrate the benefits of the VASCO system to the security industry. These scenarios highlight major features of the system, such as the creation of a virtual replica of a governmental facility, its surrounding, and the validation of the current security measures.
2. Reconstruction of a Digital Mock-Up
In order to enable study security concepts in a building, the VACO project needed to provide a reliable and cost effective solution to the problem of reconstructing and visualizing indoor scenes, to be used by people with no particular background on ICT and without requiring intensive, if any, training. The role of reconstruction and visualisation modules is to support security experts to visually define and assess concepts and measures for the protection of buildings.
Computer Vision techniques that mix image based reconstruction with Inertial Measurements Unit, implementing novel algorithms that allow a non-expert user to reconstruct a whole building floor with an off-the-shelf smartphone and then to inspect said floor within a web browser. The algorithm has been deployed in three main applications:
- Mobile Capture: An Android mobile application to acquire the geometry of an indoor floor plan and to create a navigable graph of the scene.
- 4DNSIDE Scene Processor: A complementary desktop tool to reconstruct the geometry of the acquired floor plan based only on images and positioning sensor data
- 4DNSIDE Net Viewer: Networked viewer for navigation inside the reconstructed scene.
The research has also been described in international peer reviewed conference papers [ABBCGKP16], [PGS16], [PGGS16], [PGGAG15], [PG14]. Further research has been carried out in the same topic, more specifically devising a new algorithm for the acquisition of indoor furniture [GPGGS16].
After evaluation at the end of the first period of the project, the work has been focused on several aspects of the 4DNSIDE pipeline, all revolving about robustness of the single parts of the pipeline, improvement of the usability for non-technical people, support for integration with the DMU Editor and meeting end user constraints that emerged during end user workshops. A special effort has been also put on disseminating the results of the research activities by publishing 4 more papers all in international peer reviewed conferences.
At the end of the project, the pipeline described above is fully functional and ready to be deployed either as a module of the VASCO system or on its own, as a complete tool for fast reconstruction and visualization of indoor environments, see the pipeline in Figure 1.
3. The VASCO Framework
The VASCO Framework is the ground basis of the project’s technical solution as it uses or is used by the other components. It includes a network layer, visualisation services, simulation engine, virtual equipments, and also the Software Development Kit for the NUI to control the Framework. Three tools have been developed with clear boundaries to enable end-users to elaborate security concepts and measures:
- he DMU Editor: enables users to create the indoor and outdoor digital representation, or mock up, of the targeted buildings along with their geographical environment, in much detail.
- The Security Editor: enables users to leverage the assets previously created with the DMU Editor that can furthermore be visually filtered to focus on desired elements. Users can elaborate security measures on top of these assets, then evaluate and assess the result with dedicated features. This is possible thanks to a custom simulation engine where virtual equipment, individuals, groups, crowds, events and threats are managed in a dynamic and world scale environment, see Figure 2.The Knowledge Database: the DMUs, the security concepts and measures including the virtual equipments, confronted against multiple threats, supported by documents such as law regulations or procedures, are all stored in a central repository and made easily accessible to collaborators. Furthermore, these stored results can be used for briefing or debriefing phases.
Both of the editors of the VASCO framework have been designed iteratively, quickly providing releases that were evaluated by end user, which provided precious feedback that was considered carefully for the following releases. Therefore, user satisfaction has been at the heart of the conception of these tools. As a result, the Final Release delivered near the end of the project fully satisfied the VASCO end users by providing a complete workflow from the DMU Editor to the Security Editor, all thanks to the integrated Knowledge Database.
In addition, project-custom APIs and exchange formats have been defined to enable the other technical components to communicate and exchange information. This set of features constitutes the VASCO Framework SDK.
4. The Natural User Interface
The natural user interface goal was to research, design, and implement interfaces and techniques ensuring efficient interaction with the VASCO framework but also a real commitment of users in the design of security plan with VASCO solutions. This embracement of users should have increased the commercial success of the VASCO outputs.
The result of this work is a clever mix of hardware and software solutions which enables to intuitively interact with the VASCO framework in a collaborative working environment. These solutions should meet challenges of contemporary collaborative areas: the interconnection of our modern-day world and the needs of cooperation between multiple experts.
The first half of the project has allowed the research and development of the primary component of the VASCO User Interface: the interactive surface for the collaboration with the VASCO Framework. Studies were followed by tests and evaluations to create a first set of prototypes of tangible objects.
After the validation of the first results during workshops, the second half of the project was focused on pushing forward the primary components of the VASCO User Interface considering user’s feedbacks and technological progress. This led to the following main results:
- Enhancement of performance (integration, collaborative software, hardware);
- Delivery of tangible toolsets;
- Delivery of annotation application on windows tablet;
- Delivery of a HoloLens application in order to perceive 3D mock-up on the tabletop.
- Production of 3 toolkits software (Low Latency streaming, Annotation, HoloLens).
The mix of the VASCO Framework with the results of the User Interface will be an additional argument to convince future customers to invest in such a system designed to be consistent with their working processes. These components are modular and can be composed in a turnkey solution.
5. Project’s integration
The technical work of the project has been overseen by a thorough integration of the technical components. This integration step was done in an iterative process planned around the two project’s main milestones: the Beta Release and the Final Release. In order to meet these milestones on time, the consortium decided to add two internal releases, i.e. the Alpha and PreFinal Releases, to better track the progress of the project.
The main results of the work achieved in this work-package are as follows:
- A single and integrated system containing the research and development work of technical packages;
- A single comprehensive and integrated user manual;
- The installation of the VASCO system on the successive evaluation sites during three end user workshops.
Each integration phase lasted 4 months. However, much work prior to these phases was necessary to ensure a successful integration. Thanks to an early defined integration strategy, pre-integration meetings and to committed partners, the integration, validation, documentation, and on-site installation were effectively achieved for all the releases.
6. Integral Security Knowledge
This effort began since the start of the VASCO project and continued throughout the project’s 3-year lifespan. It was focused on the creation and assessment of security concepts and measures developed by the VASCO consortium. Furthermore, it defined the structure of the Knowledge Database, which allows users to access valuable security concepts for government asset protection, to store, revise and improve past sessions, and draw from lessons learned.
The partners delivered two versions of a report on integral security concepts and the knowledge database. In the first version of this document, the three situations created to demonstrate the VASCO functionalities were analysed in light of the advantages VASCO brings over traditional approaches to securing critical buildings. Adopting a slightly different perspective, the second version portrays how the VASCO idea evolved from its conceptualisation to the final release of the system, addressing the improvements made by the consortium in terms of technical solutions and mirroring the needs of security professionals.
Building on the valuable feedback provided by external end-users, this document discusses the uses of VASCO in the security domain.
Potential Impact:
1. Expected impact
The final results of the VASCO project research and development work are an all forming one studio, from hardware to software solution, enabling security experts, non-technical and not necessarily trained persons, to capture the inside and outside of a facility, to design security concepts and measures on top of the digital environment. The proposed technical solution provides a collaborative, risk-safe, and user friendly environment which favours cooperative security design as well as means to store these security designs and to share this knowledge with collaborators. The potential impact is the ability to easily, quickly, and without costly specialized hardware and competences, acquire new facilities. Furthermore, the potential impact is to ease and speed up the design and assessment of security concepts by collaborating and sharing security knowledge.
The VASCO system adds value to the process of designing security for government buildings and other critical infrastructure sites. The ability to work within an accurate virtual 3D mock-up of a building allows users to fine-tune security in a way that was not previously possible. The work contributes to the creation of new security concepts, as well as the opportunity to store and reuse lessons learned through the Knowledge Database. After creating an exact replica of a specific building, users can consider various security aspects, both indoors and outdoors, thus taking into consideration the role of the surrounding environment, which likely includes additional critical buildings and/or a dense urban environment and population. More specifically, VASCO can be used for creating general building security, security related to a specific threat, evacuation plans, as well as for mission planning, briefings, after action reports, or risk assessments. The feedback received confirms the need for a solution like the one proposed by the VASCO consortium; in other words, a virtual platform which will be inherently linked to the end user’s daily operations.
The VASCO project was end-user driven, striving to create a system that adds value to current approaches to security design and assessment, constant effort was dedicated to obtaining feedback from end-users and to find appropriate ways to implement it in order to ensure that the development of VASCO led towards an optimal end product. Presentations were done all along the project to end user in order to evaluate the system, see Figure 5. The deliverables produced offered transparency to this process by showing how end users impacted technical work and triggered improvements. Moreover, they offered guidelines on how VASCO can be used in the building security domain (down to details on specific functionalities), and are informative on the advantages the system brings when compared to traditional approached to security.
VASCO has two primary audiences, both with different responsibilities: security teams (of the building) and interdisciplinary response teams. Current state of the art security approaches is that operators, asset managers, policy makers tend to identify threats and vulnerabilities within their domain of responsibility. Building security teams focus inward, becoming experts on the particular threats that pertain to their domain. They place and monitor the security cameras, ensure entrances are protected, consider evacuation routes, identify possible areas where security could be breached, among many other security related tasks. Thus, VASCO is able to accurately capture interdependencies across different environments and functions of buildings with a focus on resilience.
Interdisciplinary response teams, on the other hand, must consider wider public safety concerns. While their responsibilities may take them inside buildings during a crisis, the information they need may be limited to practical information such as the building layout. Response teams will benefit from familiarizing themselves with the inside of a building, but must also consider the area surrounding the building. For example, when a world leader visits premises, response teams must consider the best route for a motorcade, which streets should be blocked off, where snipers can be positioned, where protesters may gather, standby positions and possible routes for ambulances, and make such logistical decisions.
Possible scenario variations can be beneficial for end-users to gain almost real life expertise. Lessons learned from scenario rehearsals will provide knowledge added value to VASCO users. As such, enhanced police tactics are envisioned. Moreover, recommendations concerning police equipment and surveillance infrastructure can be made available based on the VASCO interactions.
Evacuation procedures can be optimised, thus saving time and effort. Only the final plan needs testing to verify the situation and check the simulation outcomes against the simulation results.
In addition, VASCO offers cost saving in the following manner; Using DMU, security experts can contribute to Government building and Critical infrastructure security without visiting the site (or) with one site visit. The creation (or validation) of a security plan can take place remotely (or with the minimum allowed site visits). Moreover, VASCO allows expert collaboration from diverse fields to contribute or validate the plans.
Finally, VASCO will have contributed to further new projects and applications by providing a state of the art system and publish scientific research work for indoor digitisation, indoor exploration and IT collaborative design systems that extend beyond the scope of security.
The 4DNside pipeline has proven to be a simple and powerful tool which can be expected to impact positively on the usability and utility of fast reconstruction and visualization of indoor environments. A straightforward example may be for real estate agencies to present houses to the clients. The result of 4DNside can also be seen as an enhancement of the standard cadastral maps which are currently used in public administrations, for example for including a 4DNside representation for museums and, more generally, places open to the public.
In the same way, the collaborative platform’s components, by being modular and combinable in a turnkey solution, could be used to enhance collaboration and coordination in many domains, including but not limited to security and safety planning.
2. Dissemination and exploitation
The project’s dissemination and exploitation work began with the planning of the dissemination and the exploitation activities steps for the three years of the project. Exhibitions and scientific conferences were targeted, while each consortium partner determined its exploitation intents. The detailed plans were described in two iterations of the dissemination and use plan.
In addition materials intended for the dissemination activities were designed:
- VASCO project logo: included in all project dissemination materials;
- VASCO Illustrations: a schematic representation of the expected technical results to be used for dissemination purposes;
- VASCO Flyer: overviews the project objectives, the features and targeted use cases;
- VASCO Notebook: given to external end-users to take notes during workshops, respecting the VASCO graphical chart;
- VASCO Project Presentation: slides enabling consortium members to present the project with a common language and point of view;
- VASCO YouTube channel to spread all videos produced during the project
- VASCO "Brief your intervention" video: presents in animation the key features of the VASCO Framework (https://youtu.be/6n3g5qYkWxc);
- VASCO project presentation roll up, an attractive poster putting forward the main concepts of the project;
- VASCO presentation video, illustrating the project functionalities and objectives (https://youtu.be/Fl-gEK58a6w).
These materials defined a ground basis for the consortium to prepare workshops with external end-users and introduce the whole range of functionalities available in the successive releases of the VASCO project. During the project’s lifespan, four workshops were organised to evaluate and communicate on its progress. As the last one of the project, the End User Workshop #4 was focused on dissemination; all the partners were set on presenting the final release of VASCO.
Throughout the entire project a strong focus was put on scientific dissemination where thirteen articles were published in high quality conferences and journals, including two consortium joint papers.
List of Websites:
The public website is up to date and accessible at the following address http://vasco.diginext.fr/. Any inquiry can be addressed to the coordinator of the project, Diginext. If needed, it will be dispatched to the corresponding consortium member. The mail address for these inquiries is: vasco@diginext.fr
