NEW technology to help combat bicycle theft has been developed by a Leeds University PhD student.
Dima Damen, from the university's faculty of engineering, has created a computer system that recognises individuals parking their bicycles so that if a different person tries to collect it, security staff can be warned.
Bicycle theft is a huge pro
blem in the UK, especially as more people are turning to bikes as a greener mode of transport.
More than 500,000 are stolen annually and only five per cent of these are returned to their owners. Many local councils have installed closed circuit TV cameras to prevent crime, but according to Miss Damen this is not always effective.
She said: "Currently lots of thefts are happening in front of CCTV cameras, but they go unchecked.
"Cameras are installed in many locations but sometimes three people are observing 25 cameras and this makes it very ineffective."
The system works by taking colour information from CCTV images when a bike is parked and storing it until it is retrieved. It then marries the stored information with the new image and if there are big differences, it notifies security staff.
At the moment the system is still at the prototype stage, but initial tests proved successful as 11 out of 13 simulated thefts were detected.
A spokesman from Sustrans, a UK sustainable transport charity, said: "Any kind of new technology that could prevent bicycle theft would be welcome.
"Theft is a big problem in many UK cities and people need to make sure their bikes are safe."
Miss Damen intends to extend the technology to cope with crime in other areas and thinks the system will prove successful.
