Providing Better City Surveillance with Video Analytics

The topic of security and surveillance has gathered increasing attention over time. A recent spate of horrific terror attacks across Europe and the United States has served as a wake up call for intelligence agencies and law enforcement to greatly expand on their street-surveillance capacity. After a major terror incident in Nice, France, the city has effectively been described as “The CCTV Capital of France” with 1256 cameras deployed all over the place including tram cars, compared to just 220 in 2007. The video data is collected and analyzed by the city’s intelligence agencies to keep track on suspicious parcels, and keep public events incident-free. In fact, many city authorities worldwide are investing time and resources to develop smart systems to prevent similar attacks on their urban areas.

This is where the need for on-board video analytics or video management solutions becomes inevitable. Video analytics enable security teams to monitor activities with ease which can help prevent incidents while decreasing the need for human surveillance. Post-incident, they generate alerts, allowing intelligence teams and law enforcement to take effective steps and preventive measures.

So, how does Video analytics help in city surveillance? Let’s take a look at a few use cases.

• On highways or freeways, video analytics can be very effective in traffic management. If any vehicle is moving in the wrong direction, it can send an alert based on motion detection. An alert could also be triggered to the authorities who can communicate with each other via radio to ensure smooth transition in the traffic avoiding any major collisions, accidents or disruption in traffic.
• Studying video analytics data can be a great help in remote locations which are difficult to track. In such cases, triggers and alerts can be generated via emails, pop-ups on screen, text messages or an alarm if a breach has occurred.
• Functions like crowd management can enable city authorities to manage the flow of crowds in certain areas based on the density to avoid congestion or concentration of traffic in an area.
• Vehicles can be identified on-the-spot for over speeding or breaking any other laws so that authorities can take safety messages to alert other drivers. Video management software can also trigger alerts or notify authorities in case there is the possibility of an accident with the help of predictive analytics.
• Face detection can also help law enforcement to keep a close watch on any person with past criminal records.
• In case of any breach or incident, video analytics can also send the captured video of the incident to the authorities, so that the footage can be reviewed and necessary actions taken regarding the incident.
• Video management software can also detect cameras being tampered with or unauthorized readjustments.
• Cameras with on-board smoke detection can raise alarm in case of fire or smoke to avoid severe damage.
• Smart kiosks with cameras can also detect the people who access it but also helps the city to monitor any vandalising of these kiosks. Smart kiosks which have Wi-Fi calling facilities can also track any audio evidence if there is a suspicious call placed by a suspicious person.

Just recording countless hours of video footage is not enough in this day and age. Security and surveillance should always be one step ahead of criminals and terrorists to ensure that our cities are a safe place for the citizens. The possibilities with video management solutions are endless as it can be developed based on specific requirements. Since there are new innovative breakthroughs taking place in the field of security and surveillance with video analytics, we can expect features and functionalities that will not only help city authorities foil criminal activities but also ensure safety of citizens all at the same time.

Advanced video management solutions, with analytics, enable city authorities to effectively manage lot of different parts of the city by analysing the data fetched from these softwares.

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