Low-cost, robust gravimetric system for enhanced security of accesses to public places

This paper describes a novel application of a tailored robust and low-cost gravimetric system for access control purposes in public spaces. The aim of the proposed device is to detect the abnormalities in the passage of people (multiple persons passing together) and, on the other hand, to recognize useful events for physical security control activities (e.g. person with stroller or trolley). The proposed system consists of a gravimetric system based on a small number of load cells, of the front-end electronics, and of data acquisition and processing hardware and software. The proposed system performs a low-level signal processing, which exploits the basic equations of statics, to obtain information on the walkthrough trajectory, and a high-level statistical processing to classify in real time different events. The results are encouraging, showing a very high detectability of the irregularities, 100% of the tested cases, and a satisfactory recognition of the other event types.