Video content analysis. Running real-time alerts

One of the trends in 2021 is real-time video surveillance. However, this format has drawbacks: the operator cannot control each camera every second, respectively, there is no complete situational awareness. It also takes too long to watch archived video. How to get out of the situation and keep maximum awareness? Our article is about this. 

Video content analysis technology

More technologies are often needed to increase video surveillance’s usefulness and value, namely video content analysis software.

Principle of operation:

• real-time video footage processing;
• objects identification in a video series;
• materials indexation by a specific algorithm to make it easy to find, filter, and analyze;
• direct video analysis;
• real-time alerts launch.

The goals of using video content analysis technology:

1. Overall improvement in facility safety and situational awareness.
2. Investigations in regards to events.
3. Receiving quantitative reporting (e.g. motion analysis, customer density, heat maps, quantitative counting and segmentation).

Why do you need real-time alerts?

The easiest way to improve situational awareness online is to set up alerts. They can run depending on the detection of activity and the need for a response.

Here are some key examples of customizable alerts in real-time.

Similar appearance

Extensive production facilities often use the following criteria to define similarity in objects appearance:

• human recognition;
• recognition of the colour of the uniform;
• differentiation of human and motor vehicles (for example, for a particular zone not intended for the movement of people or cars).

If a non-standard event (inconsistencies with the appearance algorithm) happens, the operator is notified.

Counting people

Notifications in the “here and now” function are triggered when a certain number of objects in a given observation zone are exceeded over a specific period. This feature allows you to control movement and excess of the allowable number of people in one place. It may be about public safety:

• at major passenger destinations (airport, train station);
• during mass sports events (in stadiums);
• in the conditions of necessary observance of social distance (in banks, shopping malls, museums, and other public places).

Stay and suspicious activity

Video analysis and the option of unwanted incidents prevention are essential tasks that are solved with video analysis.

For example, video cameras can be programmed to detect suspicious behaviour (breaking boundaries, idle staggering, unauthorized movement of objects, questionable body position). These signs may indicate an intention to commit an offence. 

Video analysis is carried out automatically and based on the available information uploaded to the system’s algorithm. Detection of deviations is the reason for sending a notification to the operator.   

Facial recognition

Previously,  facial recognition was only available to law enforcement and security officials to identify suspects. However, there was no quick alert option. The practice of usage implied committing an offence; then, police extracted the video footage and information from the video stream to compare with the database.   

Today, technology has come a long way. Intelligent video analytics with facial recognition function became public and got additional features.

For example, Faceter software allows:

• recognize human faces with an accuracy of 99.98%;
• keep “black” and “white” visitor lists;
• count and segment the audience;
• keep a quick search for photos;
• notify the operator of programmed events (such as entering a bank, shop or restaurant of a person on the black or VIPs lists).

Vehicle recognition

The purpose of vehicle recognition can be:

• auto stream monitoring;
• control over parking spaces (fullness, density, time, number of cars);
• management of travel to the protected area and restriction of outsiders;
• registration of the vehicle and the maintenance of lists, according to the security regulations;
• implementation of the pass-through regime;
• compliance control and traffic prevention.

Details are in the article “Licence plates recognition: top 4 best services.“

Benefits of alerts

Real-time alerts help:

• raise awareness of the situation at the site;
• identify non-standard events;
• track compliance with regulations and labour discipline;
• prevent misconduct, unauthorized acts and offences;
• accelerate rapid response, intervention and investigation;
• optimize business processes and existing infrastructure.

Results

In recent years, technological advances have been breakthrough, leading to highly productive video content analysis solutions. Although the human factor is still essential in video surveillance, modern technology has high detection and identification accuracy, providing intelligent real-time alerts.