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Smart City Revolution By Brent Jacot
The term “smart cities” has been a buzzword in the security market for several years now. Recently, the smart cities concept has become a reality in some cities and municipalities, and we are beginning to see the benefits of leveraging AI-enabled analytics to produce deeper insights to promote the safety and efficiency of the environment.
Smart buildings are essential building blocks within the complex smart city ecosystem as they contribute significantly to the sustain- ability of cities. Many governments’ visions of smart cities include not only making urban environments more sustainable, but also safer and more convenient for residents. Smart video technology, in tandem with video surveillance, is helping make cities and public buildings smarter, as well as safer. Both government authorities and private enterprises are benefiting from the latest technology trends and deploying smart video technology both easily and sustainably.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
Technology is already performing critical tasks in public trans- portation to improve operations and safety, helping automate routines and make it more efficient. AI video analytics are playing a key role in this, as smart cameras can do much more than just record and deliver video footage.
Smart railways and metro surveillance are combining smart cameras and AI video analytics to help operators and transit planners to systematically monitor and understand passengers’ behavior. This provides valuable insights from video data to opti- mize passenger flow and minimize security and safety risks auto- matically and in real time.
This same technology and application to cities and public buildings to help authorities, operators and planners to system- atically monitor and understand urban life, improving mobility and infrastructure for long-term planning.
TRAFFIC AND PARKING
AI-enabled smart cameras have the potential to take security and traffic management in urban environments to the next level.
Traffic operators and planners worldwide are struggling with major challenges due to poor traffic planning based on little data. Millions of people waste valuable time every day in traffic jams and traffic causes too many deaths and injuries. Outdoor surveil- lance cameras equipped with AI video analytics help continu- ously monitor traffic, and detect and eliminate both situational and structural issues.
AI video analytics detect pedestrians at crosswalks and align traffic signal control with actual occupancy to promote overall safety. They also detect and remove traffic obstacles by iden- tifying anomalies such as objects and people on the street and let smart cameras take automated action. Real-time situational awareness happens by adapting traffic control to density by con- tinuously analyzing vehicle volume and behavior to automate the control of traffic lights and digital speed limits. Future data- driven planning improves by analysis of road layouts to gather valuable performance insights and vulnerabilities.
“Government authorities and private enterprises are benefiting from the latest technology trends and deploying smart video technology both easily and sustainably.”
Smart parking management helps make better use of exist- ing parking spaces using cutting-edge video technology. Park- ing shortages in cities primarily occur when parking is poorly managed and inefficient, or if there are more cars on the road than available parking slots. These analytics take existing camera technology a step further to not only identify occupied and free spaces in parking lots. This also will trigger actions within traf- fic control systems. Access management improves by recognizing vehicles, based on license plates or vehicle types. Overall, this pro- duces insights through one surveillance camera system whereas multiple would have been required in the past.
SMART BUILDINGS
AI video technology is making buildings and public spaces smarter and more versatile by enabling automated crowd count- ing, occupancy monitoring, crossline detection, and heat map- ping for crowds. Informing employees will improve controlling digital information systems to respond quickly to critical events. Video data can also be analyzed statistically to improve opera- tions and passenger services. Surveillance that required a complex computer system is now executed directly on a device.
Smart video technology detects the emergence of fire or smoke in buildings and outdoor areas and triggers alarms faster and more reliably than humans can. Fire is one of the foremost dangers for both the people and assets that populate these spaces. Therefore, the prevention or early detection of flames and smoke is crucial.
Suspicious and violent behavior is identified in large and com- plex buildings that offer more space for property damage and vio- lence. Security staff often struggle to manage all areas at all times. Smart video technology comes into play to enable cameras to not only deliver video, but also analyze it and trigger actions them- selves by detecting normal activity patterns and trigger an alert when behavior occurs that deviates significantly from ordinary activities, such as a fight, a person falling or lying on the ground, loitering or a burglary.
Smart video data enables smarter decision making, both in long term planning and in real-time control. Edge computing moves data analytics from servers to cameras, reduc-
ing infrastructure and data volume transferred.
Infrastructure authorities, operators, and prop-
erty owners are getting more out of surveillance
cameras to drive the smart city revolution.
Brent Jacot is the senior business development director at Azena.
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