A system to automatically monitor forbidden areas

Surveillance systems that automatically detect illegal behaviors performed by people unaware of the camera have a wide range of applications: security, healthcare, conservation of cultural heritage and so on. In particular the monitoring of museum and archaeological sites is one of the most challenging problems to be solved in order to avoid irreparable damages to historical heritage. In this paper a system able to check by common digital RGB cameras unexpected accesses to forbidden areas in a public museum is presented. The reliability of the proposed framework is shown by many experimental tests performed in the Messapic Museum of Egnathia (Italy).