14 Sep How Is AI Changing Video Monitoring and Security?

How Is AI Changing Video Monitoring and Security?

Did you know that more than 770 million security cameras are installed worldwide? With video monitoring and surveillance being such an integral part of our safety, many are curious about improving security systems. How can we improve so many cameras and help keep people safe?

One of the most dominant ideas is to utilize AI security systems. If you’re curious about using AI in video surveillance, we’re here to help. Read on to learn about AI’s function in video monitoring, as well as its many benefits.

AI in Security

To begin, where is AI’s impact on security today? Some may be surprised to learn that AI has been present in our security systems for years.

AI is most commonly implemented for facial recognition. You can see this on sophisticated cameras such as your smartphone. AI has become exceptionally skilled at recognizing faces, highlighting them, and keeping a log of those that pass by the camera.

AI can also help to analyze patterns and movements. If someone spends “too long” in front of a camera near a bank, for example, the AI may flag this as suspicious behavior. Afterward, an employee can review the footage to ensure nothing was happening.

In short, AI has been present for years and is continuing to improve. As the technology is bettered, we’re likely to see countless more integrations for video monitoring.

Benefits of AI Video Monitoring

With a better understanding of AI’s place in security, we can look into its many benefits. Here are some of the perks of using AI in video surveillance setups.

Reducing the Workload

One of the more challenging issues of video surveillance is the high workload for people. Cameras can record multiple angles at once, but without AI, it’s only recorded video.

As such, a person needs to sit down and watch the film to see what’s notable. Doing so can take countless hours depending on what’s being watched.

Making matters worse is that this isn’t necessarily a task that more people can quicken. With many tasks, you can lower the workload by adding more people. In video surveillance, the video won’t go any quicker just because more people are watching.

While there are exceptions, such as splitting several sections up among multiple people, the workload remains high. AI is able to condense the video to remove the large swathes of unnotable events. Doing so will help employees finish the task quicker and increase productivity.

Additionally, this factor will help to reduce eye strain and fatigue. Studies show that screen time is associated with high blood pressure, increased stress, and worse sleep. AI will aid employees in the task to ensure that these awful symptoms don’t take root.

Eliminating Human Error

A significant issue with the high workload of video monitoring is the likelihood of human error.

Human attention spans are reported to be dropping, but even without this change, watching a video monitor is mind-numbing. Spending several hours of your day staring at a video camera’s feed sounds easy, but it’s challenging to the mind.

Monitors need to watch multiple screens at once over long hours. As such, it’s natural for people to miss something or to let their attention lapse.

AI is constantly attentive and will not fatigue. The employee watching the video monitor is then free to move to other tasks.

Some have concerns that this eliminates jobs. For every video monitor that AI in video replaces, that’s a job lost. However, the fix lies in the employer needing to shift that employee to another position rather than simply remove them.

Additionally, security systems are the place for improved efficiency. Human error can cause significant health and safety issues.

Quicker Searching

One way that the workload is reduced is with swifter searching. AI excels at condensing the video to the “best” moments.

For example, AI can take a virtual note if it spots something suspicious. The AI may bookmark a section of the video if it notes someone showing behavior that may indicate a threat.

AI tends to lean toward being overly cautious, which means there are many “bookmarks” to go through. Due to this, an employee still needs to go through these sections and see what drew the AI’s interest. Still, these moments are considerably less of a workload than scrubbing through dozens of hours of raw footage.

An industry where this is most useful is forensic investigation. In such a situation, time is of the essence, and investigators can’t spend their days looking through forty hours of footage.

Instead, the AI can condense the footage to when the needed information is on screen. Doing so allows the investigators to gather the information they need without waiting for the entire footage to be surveyed.

There are countless ways that AI security systems aid in searching beyond this example. Consider looking into the features of your security system to see how it can best serve you.

Greater Affordability

Finally, AI has helped to make security systems more affordable.

AI-powered video analytics can look through vast amounts of video data. In doing so, they track movements, identify anomalies, and more.

The automation helps you monitor larger areas with multiple cameras simultaneously. Due to this, you need fewer cameras installed, as one can monitor more areas without others. As a result, businesses and homeowners spend less on video monitoring.

Enhancing Your Security Systems

Video monitoring was once an expensive security option that required humans to spend countless hours scrubbing through raw footage. With AI security, we’re able to reduce costs and enhance productivity by relegating these tasks to artificial intelligence. Afterward, employers should focus on retraining the employee that the AI surveillance replaced.

Having been in the security industry for decades and watched the technology take shape, we’ve found alarm.com cameras to be some of the best cameras on the market for home and business security systems. To learn more about these cameras and how to improve your security system, contact us.