The most obvious CCTV trend at the show was ‘analytics’ or intelligent video. Obviously this has been spoken about a lot in the past, but it seems now to have come of age. Almost every manufacturer was offering some form of analytics, but Object Video’s Ed Troha felt that a fair proportion of this was just re-branded motion detection, and not really ‘truly intelligent’.
“For a system to be truly intelligent it must meet three criteria,” he said.
“It must be based on the science of computer vision – the science of analysing pixels within the motion video. It must be capable of analysing the movement and character of every pixel all the time.
“It must be able to report, classify and track, to some degree of accuracy, a group of pixels within a scene.
“And to be truly intelligent, a system must be able to report information to end users on its understanding of the scene.”
Despite his misgivings, Troha conceded that video analytics had come on in leaps and bounds – obviously with his company at the forefront, in his opinion. But why would this be the case?
One of the factors is obviously image quality, with advances in chip technology and the development of megapixel cameras allowing scenes, and pixels, to be analysed in greater detail.
It’s also simply advances in technology, with more complex algorithms able to simulate intelligence.
But ultimately, I think, it’s wider acceptance – and the beginning of an understanding that there must be a point to this kind of technology. The technology has to have a reason to be used, otherwise it’s just excess information – a feedback buzz that distracts attention from the core functions of surveillance equipment.
We can see the wider acceptance of technology at work in areas such as downloadable firmware for DVRs and other pieces of equipment. This is, again, something that has been available for quite a while, but it seems that as we begin to accept this kind of constantly updated software etc in our everyday lives as consumers, so industry fears begin to erode over time. So, at IFSEC, pretty much every company I talked to had upgrades and updates available online, and they all reported the growth in usage of these services.
It’s kind of an unusual situation, in that the introduction of digital video and other technologies were very much driven by industry, and are only now becoming really accepted/adapted for the consumer world – whereas internet/IP adoption has happened from the other direction, with user expectations, to an extent, driving the change.
In a sense, then, IFSEC 2007 was about the industry finally starting to deliver some of the functionality that your average punter – and, indeed, end users – have thought was possible for, oh, the last 20 years or so. This has only been intensified by the popularity of TV shows like the various CSI franchises, and movies like the recent Deja Vu (perhaps the most unintelligible film of the year).
If you asked the average guy in the street, he most likely would have assumed that a building’s CCTV, access control and alarm systems were integrated (seamlessly, obviously – in fact, I’ve never come across any promotional material from a manufacturer where the word ‘seamless’ isn’t lurking about near ‘integration’).
And obviously these integrated systems would be operated by well trained security staff with a thorough understanding of all elements of the systems and the potential and threats and risks a building might face.
Another way of looking at it is that since 9/11 and 7/7, people have been more aware of the security in place around them. And it can only be good for the industry to be actually beginning to live up to the performance expectations held by the people who need protecting.
It’s good for the image of the security industry, but more importantly, it’s good for the safety and security of the general public – you and I, in other words.