Live Stream Video Analysis with Computer Vision
In the past few years, video analysis has gained interest from various industries, from factories to simple grocery stores. Its efficiency and usability led computer vision to success. The technology allowed automating tasks that used to require constant human intervention and freed people from repetitive manual work.
Nowadays, video analysis processing operates on the highest level and can perform many tasks, from face and license plate recognition to currently widely used temperature checking. Computer vision can record video in real-time and identify people or objects. Specialists at IDAP decided to dive a bit deeper into this topic because we believe that this technology will be of great use for any niche, from sport to gambling.
What Can Video Content Analysis Do for Your Business?
Video content analysis is a complicated field that can automatically recognize current or previously recorded events in the video. All the crime movies where the police could find a person by searching for their face in random videos have eventually come true. A parking violation, theft, or someone with a fever at the store entrance will not get past the system. Now let’s see what computer vision can do for you.
The basic tasks of video analytics:
- Images classification. Real-time computer vision can be set up for a specific object (statue, car, etc.) or a person (age, gender). It also includes animals);
- Location. It helps to find any object on a video and track its path and actions through other available camera records (a car before an accident, a person after a crime);
- Object identification. The function allows to find any specific object or identify all the options on a video.
It all started with systems that could warn about blackouts or changes on the screens and ended with technologies that can identify and track objects on images or videos. Nowadays, it is an efficient tool for almost any industry or company. Each business can find a video analysis system useful even if in an unexpected way.
Some of the advanced video analytics advantages:
- Control of the situation. You can monitor when your employees arrive and leave the office, how long and hard they work, how well they communicate with other departments, or how they perform their tasks.
- Security. This tool is a big help for security guards. The video analytics identifies each visitor in the parking lot or any other places with the cameras. Thus, security can respond to emergencies, threats, or any suspicious behavior faster.
- Service. Computer vision analytics tracks crowds or queues and shows the number of people in the building. It helps to improve the quality of your customer service. Your customers will no longer have to wait for a second checkout to open if you know that the store is overcrowded.
- Covid prevention. The reality is that nowadays, we can single out this aspect as an important point. It is important for the sick to keep a distance and stay at home, but not all people are aware of it. That’s why a system that checks each client’s temperature automatically will be a good integration into already existing CCTV cameras.
Thus, video analysis is a useful tool for stores, business centers, small companies, or even state institutions. It allows you to increase the security level, avoid crimes, and easily detect suspicious activity using CCTV analytics. And it can also keep your colleagues and employees safe during a pandemic.
How to Develop API?
AI streaming is a complicated field that requires implementation by professional engineers. But before developing a project for our clients, we advise them to consider some aspects.
Let’s analyze the three main computer vision types:
- Real-time video processing. Video processing allows choosing an individual setting for every camera. Based on certain predefined criteria, the system analyzes the situation in real-time and can warn personnel about any specific changes.
- Video content analysis. There are two types of content: real-time videos and prerecorded ones. Real-time identification requires system setup of trigger alerts for specific incidents. Post-processing does not need any previous setting and is majorly used as evidence or for forensic analysis.
- Deep learning video analysis. Such analytics helps track an object through images, understand its behavior, and predict its next move. It provides accurate work with volumes of information, helps to extract actual context, track and understand human poses, or segment images.
The most important part of computer vision development is the team of developers. The quality of the final product will entirely depend on the specialist you hire. That’s why it is crucial to choose an experienced company with professional staff.
Industries That Widely Use Video Content Analysis
We have extensive experience in intelligent video analytics software development, which allows us to identify the niches where this technology is especially popular.
Healthcare
Medical organizations often invest money into video analytics to keep their patients, staff, and visitors safe. It allows avoiding such issues as kidnapping, drug theft, and bribery. Сomputer vision is useful not only for real-time video monitoring of the situation but also for collecting important data. It identifies the patient’s condition and alerts the employees about any health status changes. Besides, the system can analyze the patient and visitor traffic to reduce waiting times. During the pandemic times, video analysis will alert the management and security guards of a critical number of visitors.
Smart Cities & Transportation
Real-time video analysis is actively used in the transport niche. Not properly managed heavy traffic can lead to accidents and traffic jams. API becomes a useful tool for controlling the situation on the road. The technology is used to operate the traffic lights and jams and detect any dangerous situations in real-time (like parking in an unauthorized location or car accidents). Besides, it helps keep and analyze valuable statistics, control the vehicles’ speed, and identify violators. Such a system also allows collecting evidence in case of an investigation of car theft or crash.
Retail
Nowadays, API is one of the most popular technologies in the retail industry. Shop owners can use computer vision video analytics to study their target audience and its behavior. Modern algorithms can analyze customers’ faces and identify some of their main characteristics, such as gender or age. Video analytics helps determine the most desired products and places that attract the most attention. Thus, retailers can manage supply and demand, maximize sales, and improve customer service.
Security
Video surveillance analytics is a longtime security assistant, but nowadays, the systems no longer require human intervention. The face and license plate recognition (LPR) technology identifies people or vehicles in real-time. It allows police or guards to quickly and efficiently find suspects since even if they manage to leave, cameras will help track the path. Besides, video analysis tools are spread in shopping malls, hospitals, stadiums, airports, and other places to help identify criminals in the crowd.
Facial recognition
The software recognizes a person by comparing selected facial features from an image, real-time or pre-recorded video with faces in the database. Such technology is relevant for both business and security purposes. As examples, let’s recall various social media that require verifying your identity with a photo, and smartphone development companies implementing face recognition lock screens.
Anomaly detection
Video analytics helps detect suspicious activity in specific regions (fires, landslides, industrial accidents, etc.). In 2020, it is an especially important issue since there have been various massive natural disasters recently. In case of any problems, the system alerts personnel, guards, and management and activates automatic systems to help prevent or control the disaster.
How to Use AI for Live Stream Analysis?
Based on our experience, consumers understand the process better with real-world examples. Theoretical information is useful, but the practical side is always much more fascinating. That’s why we have compiled some examples of very different organizations that effectively use video content analysis software in their work:
- Marine Layer. This company based in San Francisco specializes in retail and actively uses AI to get the most relevant data on the customer traffic in its branch offices. The implemented system automatically counts the number of store visitors per hour or any specific day and generates the traffic statistics. This allows them to save time and avoid analyzing the traffic manually.
- Brondby. As we have mentioned above, technology can be used in any sphere. Thus, the football club Brondby uses video analytics for the visitors’ face recognition. The system analyzes if a person is allowed to enter the stadium and helps to avoid misunderstandings or conflicts.
- New York City Department of Transportation. This organization uses the CCTV networks to monitor accidents on the roads, traffic jams, weather conditions for driving, parking violations, and much more. The cameras record the situation in the city, process it, and send real-time updates to the department.
- Buffalo University. The university has created an application to identify autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among children. Using the smartphone camera, the software studies their behavior, concentration, and facial expressions while watching social videos. Since the system tracks the eye movements, there is a high percentage of success. These movements are different from those of people who do not have ASD.
What Next?
Real-time video content analytics can seem challenging to use or implement, but in reality, it allows companies to solve everyday tasks faster. As with any other AI, computer vision is much more accurate and attentive to details than a human employee. A vast number of niches can improve their workflow and speed up the business processes with such technology. It is useful for almost any industry, from security control in hospitals or airports to crowd monitoring in shopping malls.
If you are interested in video real-time computer vision software, we are ready to answer all your questions. Our team consists of professionals with vast experience. We aim to provide high-quality service, match our customers’ needs, and deliver efficient results. Our support team works around the clock to solve your issue, no matter where you are located. If you want to know a little more about the company or our successful cases, visit our website. Choose the best team to bring your ideas to life!