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IJEETC 2025 Vol.14(6): 403-411
doi: 10.18178/ijeetc.14.6.403-411

Hidden Weapon Detection and Tracking in Thermal Video Using Auto-Labeling and Deep Learning Approaches

Hassanein Yarob Saeed Albakaa* and Ali Abdulkarem Habib Alrammahi
Department of Computer Science, College of Computer Science and Mathematics, University of Kufa, Najaf, Iraq
Email: hassanein.albakaa@gmail.com (H.Y.S.A.), alia.alramahi@uokufa.edu.iq (A.A.H.A.)
*Corresponding author

Manuscript received June 24, 2025; revised August 1, 2025; accepted August 7, 2025

Abstract—This study proposes an automated framework for detecting and tracking concealed weapons in thermal video, aimed at real-time surveillance in high-security public areas like airports and stadiums. Due to the lack of relevant public datasets, thermal videos were recorded using an infrared camera in scenarios simulating concealed weapons. Frames extracted from the videos were automatically annotated using the GroundedSAM model, which aligns textual prompts ("gun", "knife") with image content, eliminating manual labeling. A YOLOv11n model was trained on over 6,200 labeled thermal images, achieving 81% precision, 82% recall, and 87% mAP@50. For tracking across frames, a Graph Neural Network (GNN) connected detected objects over time, 0.88 consistency for guns, and 0.66 consistency for knives. The integration of smart annotation, thermal-aware detection, and GNN tracking demonstrates strong potential for real-time, robust weapon detection in crowded, security-sensitive environments.

 

Index Terms—GroundedSAM, autodistill, YOLOv11n, thermal video dataset, Graph Neural Network (GNN) tracking algorithm, special evaluation metrics for tracking algorithm

Cite: Hassanein Yarob Saeed Albakaa and Ali Abdulkarem Habib Alrammahi, "Hidden Weapon Detection and Tracking in Thermal Video Using Auto-Labeling and Deep Learning Approaches," International Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering & Telecommunications, Vol. 14, No. 6, pp. 403-411, 2025. doi: 10.18178/ijeetc.14.6.403-411

Copyright © 2025 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

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