Advanced Video Analytics Software for CCTV
In certain situations, camera surveillance
systems require better video analytics to
meet specific monitoring and recording needs.
In this lesson, you will learn what are the advanced video
analytics capabilities that are available in the market and how they can be
used in day to day situations.
Advanced
Video Analytics
Assuming you already have the basic knowledge about video
analytics and you've probably read the other lesson on the subject, let's get
right to the point and talk about the most advanced features. The following is
a description of each of them.
Face
detection and recognition
This type of resource is very common in places where it is
desired to control the access of people to certain restricted areas or as a way
to later identify who had access to a specific place.
Security cameras are installed at specific entrances or places
where there are movements of people who must have a picture of their faces
inserted into a database of a security system.
Although there are complex algorithms behind the software
responsible for recognizing faces, the practical application concept is quite simple,
a security camera must identify what a face is and capture an image as clearly
as possible to store it in a database for later consultation and comparison
with people registered in the system.
There are cameras or software on the market that are able to
perform only the detection of faces and others that can, in addition, capturing
the image of faces, make the comparison with a database to find and identify
people.
Vehicle
license plates recognition
This type of advanced video analytics is very common on
roads, tolls, and areas where there are vehicle entrances. The process of
recognizing vehicle license plates numbers can be done on the camera itself or
in a combination of camera and specialized software.
A few years ago it was possible to recognize vehicle license
plates only through specialized and expensive software developed by a few
companies that dominated the electronic surveillance industry.
Over time and with the advancement of technology more options
have appeared in the market and the price of implementation of such systems has
been reduced, besides the software, there are also IP cameras that do such a
job themselves.
Companies such as ISS and Genetec stand out in the market for having robust
and accurate systems for vehicle license plates recognition, but they are not
exclusive because with the opening of the market there were many partnerships
and commercial agreements that allowed the use of the intelligent analytics
algorithm by other companies that implemented this functionality into their own
recording and monitoring software.
Currently, it is possible to buy security cameras that have
embedded intelligence to recognize vehicle license plates and the price is very
affordable. The Chinese manufacturer Hikvision has IP camera models that
were designed for this purpose.
In order to capture vehicle plates numbers, however, it is
necessary to follow specific camera installation and positioning procedures
with adequate angles to obtain images of sufficient quality for analysis and
recognition by the camera itself or by a server that runs a specific software.
Tracking
Tracking the movement of people and vehicles is also something
that can be very useful as it allows you to analyze behavior and record
occurrences automatically based on specific, pre-established events.
There is intelligent software that can accurately track the
movements of people and vehicles and generate alerts for an action to be taken
immediately or to record the event with date and time and allow smart searches
to be performed later.
People
tracking
Here is an example of the practical application of this
concept.
Note in the example of the image that a car is positioned in
the pedestrian crossing area and there is an indication of tracking a person
walking through it, this type of intelligence allows to alert and record
incidents with great accuracy without the need of a camera operator looking to
the monitor.
Vehicle
tracking
Another practical example of using this video analytics
technology is
the control of vehicle movement at a particular intersection where it is
allowed to travel in specific directions.
See the following image where a vehicle converts to the left
and is being monitored and tracked by an intelligent system, in which case it
is possible to count the number of conversions in that direction.
Tracking technology is very useful in situations where there is
an interaction between people and vehicles and alerts can be generated with
great accuracy.
Vehicle
counting
A very common application in intelligent monitoring
systems is
the counting of vehicles or objects that enter a specific area or cross a
virtual line.
Counting
vehicles at entrances and exits
The concept of video analytics used here is very
simple, a virtual line is drawn on the camera image to count the entrance of
cars in a certain direction and the same process is performed for the vehicles
that are leaving the place, changing only the direction in which the vehicle
moves.
Note in the image that the vehicle is crossing a virtual line
and there is an indication of the count. A second virtual line is positioned at
the entrance for the same job.
Counting vehicles on roads
It is possible to use advanced video analytics to perform counting of vehicles on roads and highways and record
the direction of traffic. See the following image for a practical example of
this application.
Note that there are virtual
lines that record the passage of vehicles in both directions, some caution to
be taken in this case is with the control of the environment because the
conditions of the lights are variables that can seriously affect the accuracy
of the counting process.
Imagine a situation at night
with rain or fog where you can not clearly identify the vehicles that travel
through the road or the use of headlights end up affecting the final result of
the analysis.
Behavioral analysis
Some specific cases can be
identified as behavioral analyzes, a person approaching a fence or wall to try
to jump to the other side or lowering himself to perform some suspicious
activity such as digging or putting something on the spot.
The combination of advanced video analytics such as tracking, crossing lines and entering and exiting areas
allows the generation of events that can be classified as behavioral analysis.
In some cases, this type of
video analysis is already part of the software and in other cases, it can be
customized as the combination of different functions.
See the following image
for intelligent video
analytics that combines the
use of tracking of a person approaching a fence and entering a specific area
and a possible crossing detection line if the subject tries to jump over the
fence.
Loitering
Through intelligent video analytics, it is possible to identify people or objects
that have been standing for a long time in a specific area, this function is
known as loitering and can be configured in IP cameras and software that
can identify this behavior.
Note in the following image
that an object was abandoned in a demarcated area, the system simply identifies
that there has been a change in the scenario and after a certain time it classifies
this situation as loitering, generating an alert for the operator or sending
messages to a particular person or group.
This feature is very useful for
identifying potential suspects close to restricted areas or even identifying
that an object has been abandoned at that location.
Abandoned
or removed object
If an object is left in a previously demarcated area the camera
or monitoring system can identify this action as abandoned object, which in
practice turns out to be something similar to the previously explained
loitering function, however with the difference that if the object does not
move for a long time it passes into a "static" state (idle) that
characterizes abandonment.
When you remove this static object from a certain area, the
video analytics system can identify the action as "object removed". See the
following image with an example of this application.
In this example, the person drags the object that was placed in
the demarcated area and triggers the removed object event.
Virtual
Fence
The names of the types of intelligent video
analytics may
vary depending on the software developer or security camera manufacturer, in
many cases, the function is called virtual fence. Notice in the following image
that a person tries to throw an object over a fence and an alarm is generated
automatically.
The event is generated by crossing the object by a virtual
line, so it is possible to find the same function with the name of virtual line
crossing in different software or cameras.
Identification of containers
A system that uses advanced
video analytics with optical
character recognition (OCR)
can read texts written on the side or top of containers and thus identify them
automatically.
This intelligent video analytics is used by transportation companies from
different parts of the world and can be implemented through the use of
specialized software such as SecurOS Cargo from ISS.
Crowd identification
Imagine a situation where there
are a lot of people in a specific location, with the intelligent video analytics system it is possible to identify a crowd.
This function is part of the
ISS SecurOS
Tracking kit and although it is
similar to what was previously described as loitering, there is a certain difference
because the software does a kind of behavioral analysis.
Conclusion
There are numerous types of
advanced video analytics that can help identify specific events that are
classified and named by different companies that develop or adapt the algorithm
for particular applications.
Obviously, you will find other
types of video analysis described otherwise or with other names, but the
important thing is to know how to assess your real need in the application of
such technologies.
I hope this lesson can help you
make a better decision when choosing the right software for your application.
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