Video Analytics

In today’s world, many schools and corporate accounts simply do not have the staff to monitor security screens 24/7. Some end users want to prevent crime before it happens. This is extremely difficult without constant human monitoring.

This is where video analytics enters the picture. If you want to keep people out of certain areas, or you want to know if students are loitering in the hallways instead of going to class, or you want to know if someone leaves an object behind, video analytics can provide this information.

Video analytics technology examines the video for specific behavior patterns. It can have a specific time period available to determine if someone is in a specific area too long, or it can tell if a car is going too fast in a speed zone. Some manufacturers have the analytics built into the encoder. Others have developed software to run on PCs to do the processing.

Video analytics has many names. One may hear it called smart CCTV, Intelligent Video Software (IVS), Video Content Analysis (VCA) or Intelligent Video Analysis (IVA). (It should not be confused with Video Motion Detection, which is mostly used to reduce data storage, but can alert operators of human presence in an unauthorized area.)

Having video analytics added to a system is like adding another security guard on staff. Some systems can send emails if certain behaviors are detected, and other systems will send out text messages to cell phones. The recording rate can be increased if a certain behavior is detected, and can trigger bringing up certain cameras to full screen view and other cameras playing back video seconds before the incident occurred.

The following link details one school application:

http://secprodonline.com/Articles/2009/01/06/Intelligence-helps-squeeze.aspx