An IoT enabled Artifact Protection System for Museum using Computer Vision

Currently, museums lack preventive security measures, leading to the theft of precious artifacts. Safeguarding artifacts and any sacred items in museums is a challenging job, as they need to be secured while at the same time being accessible to all visitors. This calls for an integrated security system to prevent theft and decrease crimes involving artifacts. This paper proposes a novel IoT-enabled, computer vision-based, holistic approach for protecting artifacts in museums. A camera functions as the imaging device that is employed to detect the movement of any artifact from a predetermined position, while the Raspberry Pi 4B manages the processing and operations of the system. This system further utilizes an image processing technique, i.e., the Haar Cascade algorithm and OpenCV, to detect artifact movement. In addition, the device will also record the photos of any authorized or unauthorized individuals anytime it detects any movement of the artifact. The system has produced a high accuracy of 93.33% and high precision of 96.29%, indicating a higher level of reliability with very few false alarms. This method will serve as an efficient mechanism for protecting artifacts at a reduced cost. The proposed system can be implemented at any kind of museum or cultural site.