CONNEXIONs (InterCONnected NEXt-Generation Immersive IoT Platform of Crime and Terrorism DetectiON, PredictiON, InvestigatiON, and PreventiON Services) is an EU Horizon 2020 project funded by the European Commission. CONNEXIONs overarching objective is to develop and demonstrate next-generation detection, prediction, prevention and investigation services for law enforcement agencies. These services will be based on the multidimensional integration and correlation of heterogeneous multimodal data, and the delivery of pertinent information to various stakeholders. Such multimodal data will be collected from: surface/deep/dark web sources including social media content in seven languages (EN, FR, DE, PT, RO, ES, AR), data acquired by Internet of Things (IoT) devices and digital evidence. The visualisation of such data will be carried out via augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) in an interactive manner as well as through a command and control centre tailored to the wants and needs of the project’s end users. The CONNEXIONs solution encompasses the entire lifecycle of law enforcement operations including:
a) Crime prediction, early warning and prevention
b) During on-going LEA investigative operations
c) Post crime investigations by crime-scene simulation and 3D reconstruction.
CONNEXIONs meaningfully enhances operational and (near) real-time situational awareness, through automated identification, interpretation, fusion and correlation of multiple heterogeneous big data sources, as well as their delivery via immersive solutions. CONNEXIONs also provides chain-of-custody and path-to-court for digital evidence. The project adopts ethics and privacy by-design principles and is customisable; ensuring it meets the differing operational and legislative requirements of police around Europe.
CONNEXIONs is validated across three operational use cases:
a) Counter-terrorism security in large scale public events
b) Human trafficking investigations and mitigation
c) Crime investigation and training through 3D scene reconstruction.
Research and extensive training into law enforcement personnel including their hands-on experience, joint exercises and training material will be used to boost the uptake of CONNEXIONs tools and technologies. With a Consortium of eight law enforcement agencies from seven different European countries, five research institutions, and four industry partners, CONNEXIONs delivers a strong representation of the challenges, requirements and tools necessary to meet its objectives.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 786731