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The system that sees, analyzes and understands

Feb 25, 2013

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

IBM has developed a very advanced video analytics system that enhances the security of sensitive installations and sites “we are developing it further in order to combine other sensors not video into it ” Stephen Russo director of public safety & physical security services global technology services told I-HLS in a special interview.

Video Analytics, also referred to as Video Content Analysis (VCA), is a generic term used to describe computerized processing and analysis of video streams. Computer analysis of video is currently implemented in a variety of fields and industries; however the term “Video Analytics” is typically associated with analysis of video streams captured by surveillance systems. Video Analytics applications can perform a variety of tasks ranging from real-time analysis of video for immediate detection of events of interest, to analysis of pre-recorded video for the purpose of extracting events and data from the recorded video (also known as forensic analysis).

Relying on Video Analytics to automatically monitor cameras and alert for events of interest is in many cases much more effective than reliance on a human operator, which is a costly resource with limited alertness and attention. Various research studies and real-life incidents indicate that an average human operator of a surveillance system, tasked with observing video screens, cannot remain alert and attentive for more than 20 minutes. Moreover, the operator’s ability to monitor the video and effectively respond to events is significantly compromised as time goes by.

Furthermore, there is often a need to go through recorded video and extract specific video segments containing an event of interest. This need is growing as the use of video surveillance becomes more widespread and the quantity of recorded video increases. In some cases, time is of the essence, and such review must be undertaken in an efficient and rapid manner. Analyzing recorded video is a need that can rarely be answered effectively by human operators, due to the lengthy process of manually going through and observing the recorded video and the associated manpower cost for this task.

While the necessity for, and benefits of, surveillance systems are undisputed, and the accompanying financial investment in deploying such surveillance system is significant, the actual benefit derived from a surveillance system is limited when relying on human operators alone. In contrast, the benefit accrued from a surveillance system can be significantly increased when deploying Video Analytics.

Video Analytics is an ideal solution that meets the needs of surveillance system operators, security officers, and corporate managers, as they seek to make practical and effective use of their surveillance systems.

IBM has developed a very advanced video analytics system -Video correlation and analysis suite (VCAS) .

Stephen Russo, said that the system provides the ability to view, monitor and digitally record activity throughout a certain environment with real-time access to critical security information. VCAS incorporates IT security and physical security to make it easier for airports and railway stations to use video surveillance for pedestrian flow monitoring and analysis, pedestrian safety, cargo inspection and other transportation logistics. VCAS provides a number of advantages over traditional video solutions, including:

Real-time alerts that can help anticipate incidents by identifying suspicious behaviors.
Enhanced forensic capabilities that allow unique indexing and attribute-based search of video events to classify objects into categories such as people and cars.
Situational awareness of a location, identity through facial recognition and activity of objects in a monitored space, such as abandoned luggage.

He explained that because VCAS is IP-based, it is instrumented, capturing video as a stream and transporting it over an IP-based network for further indexing and analysis. Rules can be set for detection of unusual activities. Video can be interconnected and shared among multiple security locations, and activities monitored across multiple premises, potentially reducing the need for staffing. Videos in digital format can be compressed, archived and stored away for years, making retrieval of archived digital videos a much easier task than retrieval of an analog video tape at a physical storage facility.

In addition to basic video capture, VCAS can be integrated with advanced technology such as wireless networking, facial recognition analytics, license plate recognition and data analysis to improve operational efficiency and provide intelligence to respond immediately to real-time events.

Russo said that VCAS can enhance security at transportation facilities, including airports, ports, railways and roadways.

Russo said that in one of the system that is already in operation it recorded 900 million “events” in one month.”Only a very advanced system kike the one we offer can handle that amount of recorded events and make them available at any second”

The IBM senior expert said that in many cases the company tells the people in charge of security what they need and what are the answers ” we talk about the high end technology that has made a real revolution in securing sites”

Russo said that as the system will be further developed it will undoubtedly include “elements” of artificial intelligence

The list of sites already monitored by the IBM system is not released by the company but it is growing steadily.