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Smart Surveillance Saves Time and Resources

In terms of smart security, a smart city, a smart campus, a smart building and a smart home have a lot in common.

Elected city officials, city planners, business officers, property managers, school administrators and homeowners all share a common charge — protect their most valuable resources.

In 2023, managing financial resources is increasingly critical for everyone. A key to affordable smart security is to use automated and intelligent tools to reduce costs. These tools deliver savings by limiting the need for security personnel, reducing demand on the IP network and the need for storage capacity of recordings. How? Instead of recording all the time, your video surveillance system records when triggered.

Most people are aware of video analytics, including people entering, people exiting, people counting, line crossing and the defining of detection zones. Deep learning artificial intelligence (AI) goes beyond video analytics. Smart cameras place the power of AI deep learning at your fingertips, with object detection and tracking. The cameras detect only the objects you want, significantly reducing false alarms, conserving recording storage and enabling a more efficient monitoring solution.

We have spoken about video AI in terms of cameras. Indeed, having these tools “at the edge” saves processing resources at the server. But what about all those existing cameras? There are servers with AI and AI appliances that add this intelligence to any connected stream.

AI software processes video streams to detect and classify every object appearing in the detection zone. Deep learning engines perform object detection, automatically classifying the objects in the scene: people, cyclists, cars, buses and vans, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles and bags. AI categorizes moving objects and people, distinguishing them from environmental items such as spiders, shaking shadows and moving lights. The result is a reduction in false alarm rates, saving storage and enabling more efficient monitoring.

Adding AI to video streams allows you to combine multiple zones and virtual tripwires to create elaborate, multiple trigger point rules for a more accurate event detection level. AI analytics provides scalability and optimization of resources across a system. New analytics can be added to your sites, making your systems future-proof without infrastructure expansion.

Two of the most popular ways to apply artificial intelligence to physical security is through license plate recognition (ANPR – Automated Plate Recognition) and vehicle recognition (MMCR — Make, Model, Color). ANPR IP camera uses the AI engine to detect and extract the numbers and letters in license plates, converting the pixels to usable digital data. ANPR and MMCR IP cameras can provide insights into road usage, traffic flow trends and control access to restricted areas.

A smart video surveillance system can pay for itself after capturing the details of a single incident. While the use of intelligence can reduce the need for security personnel, these tools provide security personnel with the ability to monitor more area and respond more quickly when incidents occur.

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By James W. Somerville, Director of Strategic Accounts of Digital Watchdog

James W. Somerville joined Digital Watchdog as Director of Strategic Account in July of 2018. His role is to develop corporate level relationships with National and Regional system integrators, and in turn, drive sales down through their local offices.  James has 40+ years in the security industry, which includes operations, manufacturing, distribution and sales. Past companies he has worked for include Honeywell Security Solutions, ADI, WESCO (Anixter-TriEd), OpenEye and Dedicated Micros. James has been managing national accounts for 25+ years.