The world’s leading manufacturers of security systems have begun offering intelligent video surveillance. In many places of the world, these solutions have gained extreme popularity, because, in comparison to traditional video surveillance, the advantage of intelligent video surveillance is that it itself – according to programmed criteria – identifies the occurrence of a suspicious or harmful situation and alerts people to this, for example, upon noticing graffiti being drawn on a wall or a car driving in the wrong direction on a one-way street.
In Scandinavia, remote security control is especially popular, because intelligent video surveillance can perform several functions that would usually be performed by a security employee, for example, noticing an abandoned bag, a lost item, or suspicious activity in a place where it shouldn’t be happening. At that moment, the system sends a warning signal that is further processed by the operator who sends a security employee to the specific location. Of course, systems also make errors and there does exist a possibility of error or false alarm. However, when viewing the overall pace of technological development, it can be concluded that systems will soon be able to differentiate and not pay attention to birds or animals and work much more effectively in unfavourable weather conditions, for example, in rain and snow when visibility is poor.
Moreover, intelligent video surveillance does not only perform security functions – it can also be used in other fields, for example, in marketing, retail, and personnel management. When using it in retail, technology can determine the lack of products on shelves or lines forming at cash registers and notify the responsible person of this. Also, this system can be used in planning, analysing crowd flows, time spent in each department of a store, etc.
Manufacturers regularly improve video surveillance cameras and applications to be used – if currently the trend is good image quality, then soon enough, manufacturers will be able to provide us cameras with HD resolution and even 3D capabilities. It’s possible, that not too far in the future, we will have a technology that is able to predict a person’s next actions and warn of his motives.
