Surveillance and tracking services can be used for a variety of reasons. They can be used to monitor suspicious activity, track lost or missing persons, and help prevent crime.
Many people think surveillance is a necessity, but there are also concerns about privacy and abuse. Many people do not support indiscriminate surveillance, such as video monitoring on city streets or tapped telephone conversations.
Asset Tracking
Asset tracking solutions help businesses know what assets they have and where they’re located at any given time. This helps organizations make informed decisions about how to use, repair, or replace equipment based on actual data. This is critical in companies with large fleets of machinery and tools, especially since lost or stolen machines can cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in downtime, maintenance costs, or replacement expenses.
Asset Tracking systems utilize technology-based solutions to monitor the location of physical assets like vehicles, tools, equipment, and cargo via tags and sensors. Typically, GPS (Global Positioning System) or RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification Device) tracking technologies are used to capture and record data. This information is stored in a centralized software solution, providing real-time visibility and improved asset management.
Smart lockers that offer tracking capabilities are a valuable asset for businesses to have at their disposal. They not only provide real-time visibility into the location of your assets, they also relay service alerts to your technicians. For example, a smart locker can identify when an electronic device has been charged and logged in or out of the locker. It can also detect any fault codes that indicate an issue with a specific piece of equipment. It then notifies the appropriate technician to resolve the problem. Using this data, you can also assess long-term performance trends to optimize your asset utilization.
Smart People Tracking
People tracking solutions provide foot traffic data that is used for demand forecasting, store layout planning, customer service optimization and queue management. These applications are powered by sensors @Edge or via a cloud-based analytics platform.
Smart tracking technologies utilize advanced image processing and AI to analyze images and recognize human presence. Once a person is identified, the system can track them over multiple cameras and times. This allows for a faster search time and can help to speed up the investigation of an incident when needed.
For example, an employee can be tracked as they walk across the facility to ensure that they are working in a safe zone, which can prevent accidents and injuries in the work area. By monitoring the movements of people in a workplace, a business can determine if there are any safety issues that need to be addressed such as better signage or lighting.
In addition, a person can be tracked based on their unique physical attributes such as age, clothing color or accessories. This can help to identify a suspect quickly in the case of a security incident. For example, a facial recognition engine can scan a person’s image from 1 camera and find them on other cameras, even if the person is wearing different clothes or has a beard or mustache.
Real-Time Video Monitoring
Real-time video monitoring services enable homeowners to monitor their homes in real time, even when they are away from home. This sense of security gives homeowners peace of mind and the ability to take proactive measures to ensure their home’s safety. In addition, live video monitoring systems serve as a valuable deterrent to criminals. Criminals are less likely to target homes that have visible cameras and will often choose a safer location or simply bypass the property altogether.
For businesses, remote monitoring can save on the costs of on-site personnel and provide a cost-effective way to safeguard facilities, equipment, assets, and employees. Unlike passive surveillance systems, real-time video monitoring services allow security solutions to respond to events as they occur, enabling business owners to improve operations, reduce risks, and increase revenue.
Video monitoring services can also help to detect and respond to key performance indicators (KPIs). By using AI-based patterns, video analytics can identify issues like a high speed of service or low transaction discount, allowing businesses to address these issues before they become larger problems. Threshold notifications are another way that video monitoring helps to prevent issues from getting out of hand. These are triggered when the video analysis detects that KPIs are not meeting their targets. The notification is automatically sent to a security team who can investigate and resolve the issue.
Video Analytics
Video analytics systems have a wide range of uses and are typically deployed as either on-device or server-based (or a combination of both). Some are simple fixed algorithm analytics that run on your cameras, while others require more sophisticated post-processing software to function. Regardless of the complexity of the algorithms or the capabilities, video analytics can be used to reduce crime and loss by alerting personnel of suspicious activity – or simply to monitor sites more effectively.
For instance, video feed object recognition can be programmed to detect dangerous objects such as chemicals or gas leaks. It can even pick out minuscule differences that might be missed by security guards in front of a camera. In some cases, the analysis can be done in real-time to provide immediate insights and response capability. In other cases, it may be completed offline on pre-recorded footage.
Ultimately, video analytics solutions can be cost savers and money makers for businesses in a variety of industries. Retailers use it to track customer demographics and optimize staffing based on customer flow, while airports deploy systems that significantly reduce security screening wait times. It has also become a crucial tool for healthcare organizations to protect patients, staff and visitors against theft of medication and infant abduction. In addition, it is being increasingly utilized in industrial settings to monitor equipment and assets, as well as for safety hazards on production lines.