What comes to our mind when we think of video analytics? Motion sensing, monitoring, security. Video analytics has caught the attention of several businesses as technology is progressing. Public safety and security are the two primary aspects of businesses and video analytics software can help by monitoring video streams in real-time. It offers robust and practical solutions by collecting data with consistency and accuracy. Analysts at Fortune Business Insights say that video analytics market is expected to rise at a CAGR of 22.67% during the forecast period, 2019-2026. Comfortability and affordability are two facets of video analytics, which are increasing its popularity among masses. For instance, Etisalat recently launched a video surveillance solution to small and medium-scale businesses. It is a state-of-art technology, enabling business owners or entrepreneurs to focus on establishing their business, while Etisalat can focus on supporting the business with respect to deployment, troubleshooting, and other factors.
Different Phases of Video Analytics: How it Evolved from Eradicating Human Involvement to Automation?
Gone are the days when video analytics solution was adopted for triggering or alerting any action. Since its inception in 2000s, this industry has experienced rapid transformations. Earlier, video analytics solutions were used to eliminate human involvement. However, the industry wasn’t able to achieve this milestone in video surveillance. Several companies such as BriefCam and others made significant developments in video analytics software by accelerating the video surveillance process. As the technology is growing by leaps and bounds, this industry also made a significant move by leveraging on Deep Learning. It further automated the entire video surveillance process by introducing neural networks, detecting objects in real-time.
Currux and Coaster to Develop an AI-based Traffic Video Analytics Platform
Video analytics is equipped with machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) now, which has made its easier for businesses to automate the data collection, analyze faster, and take actionable insights as per the situation. In case of an unauthorized visitor, AI and machine learning can notify the security personnel and he/she can take action accordingly. Therefore, video analytics solutions can help in ensuring the safety and security of cities with smarter and advanced applications. On September 4, 2019, Currux Vision and Coster technologies entered into a partnership to create an AI-based video analytics platform. This platform aims to analyze traffic management and offer traffic video analytics for smart cities and Department of Transportation. Getting real-time information on traffic will enhance the transportation infrastructure and minimize pollution.
Whether it is eliminating human involvement or traffic management, it all sums up to how video analytics solutions can help organizations to enhance their operational decision-making in addition to safety and security.
Customers’ ‘Eyes on Stalks’ as Retailers Lure Them with their Retail Intelligence
It is true that the majority of the customers prefer to shop online owing to the ease of convenience and comfort. For brick and mortar retailers, it is becoming difficult to be in the market. However, the ability to touch and feel any product or service is still in the hands of retailers and there are people who prefer to shop offline because of this. Hence, retailers need to catch-up with their online competitors and find different ways and means to accommodate customer preferences. As per a study by Harvard Business School, one of the easiest ways to enhance customer experience is to make the shopping experience easier. This is where retail intelligence plays a crucial role for brick and mortar retailers. Some of the features where retailers can improve customer experience:
- Reduce customer service time
- Introducing smart shelves and maintain aisle management
- Analysis of facial micro-expressions to detect and analyze emotions
- Quantify and classify customer demographics
- Encourage promotions and optimize product displays
Right from counting the footfall at the store to analyzing their emotions while shopping, video analytics can help retailers to take actionable insights and make the most out of it. With the emergence of retail digitization, Sephora used video surveillance as a business intelligence tool to gain insights. The store installed AXIS cameras to count the footfall and simultaneously track their movements in the store. This further helped them to understand the complete process of closing a particular sale of the product. All these strategies are adopted to make customers happy and wow customer experience.
Video analytics in retail intends to fetch the attention of the audience and influence their buying decisions. In order to make sure that customers don’t leave your store, retailers should enhance in-store experience by minimizing wait and ensuring friendly and smart customer service.
