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A Deep Learning Based Approach to Detect Suspicious Weapons
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Prof. Palak Girdhar, 2Prashant Varshney, 3Harsh Tyagi, 4Nikhil Lohia, 5Abhishek Kajla
Computer Science & Engineering Department,
Bhagwan Parshuram Institute of Technology New Delhi, India.
Abstract – Over the past few decades, the
world has witnessed a lot of terrorist and
criminal activities. Public Surveillance
system has gained a lot of importance as a
response to counter these activities.
Various state governments has started to
install cameras in their densly populated
and busy cities in order to safeguard their
citizens.
In order to cover a complete city
under surveillance system there’s a need of
thousands of cameras and to monitor their
live video feed, hundreds of active security
personals are required. Most commonly,
one security personal is monitoring around
6 – 8 cameras, checking whether any
person is indulging in any sort of criminal
activity, carrying any weapon or not
(because most of the criminal activities has
involvement of weapons), which is quite
monotonous and hectic task. One slip of
concentration can cause damage to many
lives. So there’s an efficient way is required
to monitor these video feeds and add an
extra layer of security.
This research paper deals with the
optimised, efficient & fastest way to detect
commonly used weapons like AK47, Hand
Revolver, Pistol, knife, Grenade, etc. in a
live video feed and notifies the security
personals immediately.
Keywords – Object Detection, Neural
Network, Deep Learning
I. INTRODUCTION
A. COMPUTER VISION
Computer Vision is an interdisciplinary
branch of Computer Science and Digital
Image Processing that enable computers to
interpret and understand visual data
(images or videos).
B. DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSING
Digital Image Processing (DIP) deals with
the manipulation of digital data (images or
video) with the help of digital computer and
some sort of Image Processing Algorithms
like Canny-Edge Detection, Error
Diffusion, Hough Transformation, etc. to
produce digital maps in which specific
feature has been highlighted.
C. DEEP LEARNING
Deep learning is an attempt of Computer
Scientists to mimic the behaviour of human
brain. It is a prominent field of Machine
Learning which comprises of multiple
hidden layers of Artificial Neural Network
(ANN) which are used to extract higher
level features from data.
D. OBJECT DETECTION
Object Detection is a field of Machine
Learning associated with Computer Vision
and Image Processing which deals with
detecting instances of an object of certain
class (like a car, buildings, humans,
weapons, etc.) possessing similar features.
Object detection can be implemented either
using ML based algorithms or DL based
algorithms, depending upon the complexity
of object class.
E. METHODS OF OBJECT
DETECTION
Object Detection methods are generally
categorised into either ML based approach
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or DL based approach depending upon the obtained mAP of 53.3% In contrary, to the
complexity of object class. For Machine results achieved on PASCAL VOC
Learning approaches, it is essential to dataset, an improvement of 30% was
define features beforehand using methods achieved by this model. In this model, the
like Haar Cascade, SIFT, etc. which further whole image is processed with a
uses Support Vector Machine (SVM) Convolution Neural Network to produce a
technique for object classification. Deep feature map and then a fixed length feature
Learning technique uses Artificial Neural vector with a Region of Interest (RoI)
Network to do an end-to-end object pooling layer is extracted from each region
detection without defining features proposal.
specifically.
III. PROPOSED WORK
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Flowchart
In year 2001, Paul Viola and Michael Jones
proposed first robust, efficient and real time
Machine Learning based Object Detection
Framework in their paper “Rapid Object
Detection using Boosted Cascade of Simple
Features”. This framework can be trained to
detect variety of objects by taking lots of
positive images (images which contains the
object which we want our classifier to
identify) and negative images (exactly same
images but without the object which needs
to be identified) to train the classifier.
However, this approach cannot be used to
detect complex objects in different
orientation and sizes.
The emergence and rapid development in
the field of Deep Learning overcomes these
above mentioned drawbacks through
Artificial Neural Networks. By using Deep
Learning based Object Detection
framework computers are able to learn
more complex features.
Deep Learning based Object Detection
framework mainly consists of two types – Scraping Images of Commonly
used Weapons
a. Region Proposal based framework that
includes models like RCNN, FRCNN In order to build Deep Learning based
and Faster RCNN. object detection model, we scraped almost
5000 images of commonly used weapons
b. Regression based frameworks that like AK47, Hand Pistol, Revolver,
includes models like YOLO and SSD Shotgun, Combat Knife, etc. in various
Region Proposal based algorithms uses sizes and orientations, which is latter pre-
sliding window approach to extract processed for building dataset. These
features from the visual data. In the year images were gathered from different
2014, Ross Girshick presented RCNN sources available on the internet and
model based on this algorithm, which further trained using a software.

Building Labelled Dataset
After pre-processing and scaling, we
labelled scraped images using “LabelImg”
software. This software eases out our work
of labelling all the weapons by simply
marking the object manually in the image
using a rectangular box. The software then
creates a text (*.txt) file giving us the exact
2D coordinates of the object within the
image. These files when combined with
images gives us a complete dataset which
further can be trained in any desired Deep
Learning Frameworks.
Model Training
The above extracted dataset is now trained
using different Deep Learning Frameworks
and model such as RCNN, SSD and YOLO.
To train the DL Models we’re going to
use Google Collab. Google Collab is a
free service offered by google where we
can run python scripts and use other
machine learning libraries taking
advantage of their powerful hardware.
It’s for free with the only disadvantage
that we can use it for 12 hours in a row,
after that we’ll be disconnected and our
files will be deleted. The dataset was
randomly shuffled in the ratio of 80-20. The
model will then train using the 80 percent
of the dataset and will give us the desired
weight. Remaining 20 percent of the dataset
will be used for testing purpose.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
We have trained three different Deep
Learning based Object Detection Models
that is RCNN (Region Convolution Neural
Network), SSD (Single Shot Multibox
Detector) and YOLO (You Only Look
Once) and record their efficiency on test
datasets for further comparison and opting
best Detection Model for our use case.
Evaluation Metrics in an Object
Detection Model
In computer vision, Mean Average
Precision (mAP) is used to evaluate Object
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Detection Model. It measures how accurate
our predictions and the number of the
predictions that our model made were
actually correct.
𝑇𝑃
𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 =
(𝑇𝑃 + 𝐹𝑃)
where,
TP = True Positives (Predicted as
positive and is correct)
FP = False Positives (Predicted as
positive and is incorrect)
Object detection systems create predictions
in terms of a bounding box and a class label.
For every bounded box, we will measure an
overlap between the predicted bounding
box and the ground truth bounding box.
This is measured by IoU (Intersection over
Union).
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑂𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑝
𝐼𝑜𝑈 =
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑜𝑛
In order to evaluate an object detection
model, we have to find Precision and Recall
using IoU values for a given IoU threshold.
Taking an example, if IoU threshold is set
to 0.7, and the IoU value for a prediction is
0.8 achieved, then the prediction is
classified as True Positive (TP). On the
other hand, if IoU is 0.4 achieved, then the
prediction is classified as False Positive
(FP).
Another important term to understand in
order to evaluate an object detection model
is Recall. Recall measures how well we find
all the positives. For instance, we can find
80 percent of the possible positive cases
inside our top K predictions.
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𝑇𝑃
𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙 =
(𝑇𝑃 + 𝐹𝑁)
where,
TP = True Positives (Predicted as
positive and is correct)
FN = False Negatives (Failed to
Predict an object is present there)
The Average Precision (AP) is the area
under the Precision vs Recall curve. (Mean
Average Precision) mAP is the average of
Average Precision (AP).
Fig: Graph of GPU time vs Accuracy
Analysis of Accuracy Precision
Precision for YOLO Model
(AP) and GPU Time to process
one frame (in ms)
Model mAP GPU
Score Time

RCNN
(Regional
Convolutional 33.325 874
Neural
Network)

SSD (Single
Shot
20.58 86.8
Multibox
Detector)

Fig: Graph of GPU time vs Accuracy YOLO (You

Precision for RCNN Model Only Look 33.1 394
Once)

V. CONCLUSION

We did a comparative study of various deep

Fig: Graph of GPU time vs Accuracy
Precision for SSD Model
learning based object detectors which uses
Artificial Neural Network to classify and
localize visual data. We have tested them
on our custom dataset of commonly used
weapons and also addressed their issues and
performance on a common hardware. We
discovered that SSD amongst all the other
Deep Learning based Object Detection
Frameworks has the least mAP score of 20,
but the computational time to detect the

object was fastest from others. So, it can be
a better choice if we need fast object
detector in trade-off to accuracy. YOLO
and RCNN provided us with the similar
mAP score of 33 and 34.2 respectively
which gives us the better accuracy of
detecting the object. Although the YOLO
trained model is comparatively faster as
that to the RCNN model making it an
efficient and reliable object detection
model.
VI. FUTURE SCOPE
A. This research paper is limited to weapons
like AK47, Shotguns, 9mm Hand Pistols,
Combat Knives and Hand Grenades which
are one of the most commonly used
weapons amongst the criminals. But there
are still a large number of dangerous and
illegal weapons whose possession by any
individual can cause a problem. So our
target will be to add more and more of these
labelled datasets into our training part to
ensure maximum accuracy.
B. We can enhance this project to a collision
detection system where all sort of vehicle
accidents can be traced and reported to
nearby police station to prevent any further
damage.
C. Another application can be to use the
system for detection of any major blood
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around the area which will report a nearby
hospital to avoid any fatality.
D. Another possible application could be the
detection of fire at any place which upon
detection can be reported directly to a fire
department ensuring that there is minimum
damage around that area.
E. One can also monitor through the traffic
using this system where the cameras will
detect all the vehicles breaking any law and
reporting the same to a traffic control
department helping them to resolve traffic
issues.
F. One of the limitations of our project is that
there is no possible solution right now to
detect any weapon which is hidden by the
criminal in either his pocket or suitcases.
We are thinking of a way to overcome this
problem and build a better and safer
environment for citizens.
VII. REFERENCES
[1] Shreejal Trivedi, Object Detection- A
Quick Read, Weblog Available from:
Object detection (Accessed 20th
December 2020)
[2] Algorithmia, An Introduction to Deep
Learning, Weblog Available from:
Deep Learning (Accessed 21st
December 2020)
[3] Adrian Rosebrock, Region Proposal
object detection with OpenCV, Keras,
and TenserFlow,[Online] Available
from: RCNN (Accessed 21st December
2020)
[4] Shivy Yohanandan, mAP (mean
Average Precision) might confuse you!
[Online] Available from: Estimating
Deep Learning Model (Accessed 22nd
December 2020)