Data is at the heart of decision making in any organization. And while data is often available, the sheer volume and frequency can be overwhelming for the respective enterprise to form a complete picture. The challenge lies in translating data into actionable insight.
Analytics harnesses the power of big data and enables enterprises to make better decisions, create innovative products, understand pain points and optimization, and gain advantages in today’s markets. One such method of sourcing data is via video analytics.
What Is Video Analytics?
Video analytics applications use computer vision algorithms to analyze and manage large volumes of video. These applications automatically generate descriptions of what is actually happening in the video. Video descriptions can then be used to identify people, cars and other objects in the video stream, as well as their appearance and movements. This information can help organizations to decide on actions like notifying the security staff on a breach.
Video Analytics Use Cases
The traditional use of video surveillance was restricted for security purposes. But times have changed and now, video analytics has more widespread uses. Compressed video streams are being analyzed in real-time to find patterns, anomalies, motion detection, behavior, events and much more. This information can benefit organizations in many ways like increased sales, time savings, reduction in losses, and better productivity.
1. Security and Surveillance
The main purpose of surveillance is to monitor the behaviors, activities, and other information in order to protect or manage people. Video analytics is useful not only for surveillance purposes but for security as well. Unauthorized access and abnormal behaviors can be monitored using such a system.
Some key use cases of video-based security and surveillance are:
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Access control ”one of the primary use cases of video surveillance. Face detection technology is used in CCTV video streams to identify a person who enters the premises. This information is used to decide whether the identified individual should get access based on his authorization level at each entry point of within the premise.
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Intrusion detection ”analysis of video streams captured from a CCTV camera can be used to track objects or people. If the object is within a restricted area then that it is identified as an intruder.
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Motion detection ”allows a security team to designate a zone and monitor if people move into or get too close to that area. Any motion in the selected area will provoke an alert and every movement outside of the area will be ignored.
2. Transport Monitoring System
Video analytics can be used to monitor public transport services like bus services, train services, and cab services. This kind of data can give valuable information regarding peak hours, traffic congestion, routes and more.
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Vehicle traffic detection ”video analytics can be applied to monitor the traffic flow speed on highways that could be used to predict travel time, dynamically calculate toll values and more. The video from CCTV cameras is analyzed using a point detection and tracking methodologies, such as the Harris-Stephen Corner interest point detection and SIFT detector. The number of vehicles detected from each frame is communicated externally as the output.
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Incidence detection ”video from CCTV cameras can be used to detect road accidents, vehicle breakdowns, and bad road conditions. Level spacing curves are derived for the traffic flow of each lane and the high-level modification of the curves indicates the occurrence of an accident.
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Pedestrian monitoring ”information, such as the direction of motion, pedestrian density, and average speed can be used to enhance safety measures, design of urban intersections and signalized crossings, roadside advertising, heating and ventilation in public spaces.
3. Healthcare
Healthcare is another industry undergoing digital transformation, both in the way patients are diagnosed and monitored in hospitals and other medical environments.
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Health status monitoring ”a video stream captured from a camera aimed at an infant could be analyzed using video magnification and an optical flow algorithm to detect the infant’s respiratory rate.
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Telemedicine ”video analytics enables physicians to conduct virtual appointments with their patients via computer, tablet or mobile device. Telemedicine is medical care when the patient and physician are not physically present.
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Surgical video analysis ”leverages cameras and computer vision to recognize what’s happening during surgery while cross-referencing a library of surgical guides and predicting the next steps. Surgical teams get real-time analysis via audio and visual cues they can control.
4. Retail
Video analytics help retailers enhance the customer shopping experience by reducing customer service time, ensuring ease of shopping, avoiding overcrowding and providing the best prices and buying options.
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Heat mapping ”measures the amount of motion in a particular area of a store. It leads to the identification of hot zones where people stop, spend time and shop. On the flip side, it becomes easier to determine cold zones in a store where there are less motion and shopping.
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Customer service ”retail video analytics help in identifying the busiest periods in a store throughout a month or even a year. This information helps to balance staff resources to meet customer demands during peak periods. In addition, it helps the staff fix their break timings during quiet hours to remain available for customers during busy hours.
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Reducing retail shrinkage ”retail and logistics companies can use video surveillance analytics to minimize inventory loss significantly. The data captured using cameras installed in storage areas can be analyzed to get insights about normal operating hours, the average time spent in the inventory, employees handling the inventory, and other details.
Conclusion
By leveraging video and big data analytics can take surveillance to a whole new level, reducing time, money, and human effort, in turn, this makes industries more secure, reliable, and consistent.