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Video Content Analysis Systems Help You Comb Through Surveillance Footage

Emerging tools help sort the actionable data from the virtual reams of footage.

You install the latest digital video surveillance system and sit back, content you're covered. But when trouble happens, how do you comb through all that footage? Video content analysis systems are emerging to answer the question.

These surveillance analytics, which began appearing a few years ago, can recognize a face and compare it with a list of past offenders, can "understand" that certain events should be recorded, and offer data mining features to spot trends for further analysis. "Without analytics, they can't use cameras effectively in their business," says Sandy Jones, principal at Sandra Jones & Co., a security advisory firm. "They can't afford to increase the number of people who monitor."

In the growing digital video surveillance market—8.5 million video surveillance cameras were installed in the United States in 2005, IMS Research estimates—systems from vendors such as 3VR Security, DVTel, March Networks, Sensormatic and TrueSentry Analytics help sort the actionable data from the virtual reams of footage. In most cases, you can install surveillance analytics in just high-risk areas of your operation. And some vendors offer components that can be added in to an existing surveillance network.

Steve Russell, cofounder of 3VR, says the banking sector has used surveillance analytics, such as his company's facial recognition technology, to capture a clear image of every visitor to a bank and compare it with a database of known fraudsters. The effort to prevent check fraud justifies the cost.

"People inside and outside the branch can be notified immediately," says Russell.

Not surprisingly, financial services companies are among the early adopters of surveillance analytics, along with pharmaceutical and high-tech manufacturing. "They have giant manufacturing floors withvery expensive goods. It would be impossible to have people staring at video cameras all the time," Russell says.

Adds Jones, "Analytics are much less costly than adding full-time employees."