In the last two decades, the world of monitoring has changed beyond recognition. The criminals are smarter now and have become virtually anonymous. The security threats unheard of in the nineties are now a reality. Human intelligence is limited, oft...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Inthe last two decades, the world of monitoring has changed beyond recognition.The criminals are smarter now and have become virtually anonymous. The securitythreats unheard of in the nineties are now a reality. Human intelligence islimited, often flawed, and is incapable of dealing with security threats inreal-time. Today, our cities have more cameras than ever before and yet thethreats manage to slip through. The recorded footage has to be monitored byhuman resources which are costlier and time-consuming as well as limited in itscapacity. With the advent of artificial intelligence, there is no need tomanually sift through hours of video footage to catch a criminal or monitoractivities in stores or offices. A camera backed by artificial intelligence caneasily process every inch of security footage in real-time and red-flag thethreats in time to save lives and resources. This blog will explore theimpressive capabilities of AI in different industries that have proven to behighly beneficial for businesses around the world.
Artificial Intelligence for Safety and Security Operations
With its self-learning capabilities, AI quickly learns to sift through a sea of data fed to it on a daily basis to recognize the normal behavioral patterns. Based on these data patterns and behavioral modulations, artificial intelligence can identify risky situations and thus, help in controlling them, before they escalate. AI can alarm the police in real-time, in cases of suspicious activities, like people loitering around in masks at night at a particular place continuously, or if there are any unrecognized items like briefcases.
Oneof India's most reputed finance companies had deployed Wobot's AI-enabledsecurity system in their branches to detect intrusions at night, violation ofentry restrictions in the strong room, suspicious activity like hand raise incase of burglary. One crucial checkpoint for the company was gun detection (ifsomeone is pointing a gun at anyone in the branch). To prevent and reducedamage from gun-related crime, it was vital to have the data and tools todetect such suspicious activity. Wobot created an augmented gun detectiondataset to notify and raise alarm in case of violation thus helping the financecompany in managing the security of their branches without the need for humanmonitoring.
Around the world, the Singapore Government in collaboration with Accenture developed an AI solution which helped in managing high crowd activity, crowd size estimation and object detection with 85% accuracy at SG50 celebrations.
Arecent study, 'Value of Data Seeing What Matters – A New Paradigm for PublicSafety Powered by Responsible AI' concluded "Integrating artificial intelligence and analytics with public safety's currentclosed-circuit televisions can transform the ecosystem from reactive toproactive, reducing US crimes by about 81.7 million by 2040 and shieldingapproximately 76,000 mass shooting victims by 2040."
Artificial Intelligence for Detecting andPreventing Fraud
Stores,retail chains, offices, etc. are always wary of theft. If it's an insider job,it becomes very difficult to catch the culprits. Physical monitoring with itslimitations poses a significant security concern. According to the NationalRetail Federation, the inventory loss due to shoplifting, employee theft, orother errors and fraud resulted in the loss of $61.7 billion in the UnitedStates in 2019.
However,cameras fortified with video analytics are almost impossible to deceive.Algorithms fed to the system can easily detect shoplifting, internal theft,etc., and alert the security and law enforcement agencies in real-time to stopthe theft. The risk of being caught is a powerful deterrent and can keepbusinesses safe.
Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare Industry
Theapplications of AI are not limited to law and order but have also shown theirusefulness in the healthcare sector. Governments all around the world haveimposed multiple restrictions to contain the spread of Covid-19 but these aremore often violated than complied with. With the reopening of public spaces andtransport, there is a real risk of new hotspots emerging as businesses andpeople knowingly or unknowingly, violate the guidelines. integrated into existing CCTV camerasto monitor the public places, can analyse the data in real-time to alert thepublic officials about the safety violations. Businesses not complying with thesanitary or crowd control guidelines can be easily recognized and warned. Videoanalytics can analyze if a particular place is being sanitized regularly, orwhether staff and people are wearing masks as per the guidelines. This allowsthe security personnel to take action in a timely manner to avoid anotherhotspot.
Socialdistancing plays a vital role in containing the Covid-19 virus. A cameraequipped with AI can identify if people are maintaining social distancing normsor not. Many companies are utilizing social-distancing detection tools with AIenabling technologies to ensure that the employees are adhering to the socialdistancing guidelines so as to prevent the occurrence of new hotspots.
Artificial Intelligence and the Retail Industry
Videoanalytics provide useful analysis to retailers by recognizing the areas wherethe customers spend time and shop, through heat mapping. It can also help inrecognizing the busiest hours of the day or the week and thus help in enhancingthe customers' shopping experience. It can also significantly help in reducing inventoryloss as the data records can provide insights regarding the normal workinghours, employees handling the inventory and other useful details.
Conclusion
Summingup, it can be said that the world has just started to realise the potential of videoanalytics. Its applications can take monitoring to new heights. It can make theworld a much safer place but with great power, comes great responsibility. Ifleft unregulated, it can become unmanageable and hence, the ethical norms ofmonitoring need to be worked out by the governments around the world.
Ourproduct, Wobot.ai, is an . It helps organizationsacross food services, retail, manufacturing and healthcare, to leave behind thechallenges of manual video monitoring and adopt AI-driven monitoring.
Wobot hasbeen adopted by top brands across the world. To check more about Wobot.ai andhow it helped Cure.fit, one of India's largest healthcare and fitness companiesin handling its hygiene, safety, and day-to-day operations.
