Blighty boffins are jacking artificial intelligence under the bonnet CCTV cameras so they can focus in on crimes quicker.

University of Portsmouth scientists have worked out how to make cameras "hear" violent sounds and react, swiveling quickly in the direction of the noise or somebody shouting. The AI can respond to fights, or violent behavior.

Dr David Brown, Director of the project, said that the camera can react just as a human might, hearing a scream and then swinging around to find the source with the same speed as a person. Meanwhile, the AI algorithms would learn, picking up key words and phrases it associates with criminal activity.

The boffins worked out that it was better to look for certain sound shapes rather than listen to the sounds themselves. The software uses AI to look at the waveform of sound shapes and if the shape isn't an exact fit, it uses fuzzy logic to determine what the sound is.

The U.K. is the most monitored country in the world.

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