Page 24 - Security Today, November/December 2023

AI on the Edge metamorworks/Shutterstock.com Are AI-based analytics best processed in the cloud, on the edge or on a dedicated server? The answer Is “It depends.” By Adam Lowerstein Discussions about the merits (or misgivings) around AI (artificial intelligence) are everywhere. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find an article or product literature without mention of it in our industry. If you’re not using AI by now in some capacity, congratulations may be in order since most people are using it in some form daily even without realizing it. When it comes to security, you have probably heard that AI is here to stay. It is the perfect assistant to security teams that cannot possibly watch all the video streams being generated by an organization 24/7/365. And it is certainly the only thing that can stay awake doing it. When we think of AI in physical security cameras, we mainly think about its ability to recognize and de- scribe known objects such as people and vehicles. That ability to recognize and describe unique attributes about an object such as a person’s shoe color, and whether they are car- rying a bag or wearing a hat is extremely valuable to inform our analytics. The analytics algorithms benefit greatly the more a smart camera can tell them about the characteristics of the per- son who is standing outside a loading dock at 4 a.m. It is this marriage of AI-based object recognition and analytics that is revolutionizing our industry by helping security teams be more proactive to potential threats versus simply reacting to events that already happened. AI will soon be commonplace in most every surveillance camera model offered for the simple reason that it makes such cameras smart, IoT devices. It’s a value-added feature that we’ll soon wonder how we ever lived without it since there are more cameras deployed than can be possibly monitored by human operators. Not all AI is equal however, because there are different methods and models available to sort through the information that is har- vested. One of the biggest differences is where the AI processing is done. Is it in the camera itself (also known as the edge) or is it on a server on premises? Maybe it is not on site at all and is being pro- cessed in the cloud? Where the information is processed can have a 24 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 | SECURITY TODAY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE