At a recent Joint Research Council ERNCIP meeting on Video Surveillance for Security of Critical Infrastructure, I was asked the questions, “Why did you get involved in this group?”. My immediate response was “to build a bridge between video analytics research and end users” or putting it another way to ‘Cross the Chasm’ (as per the title one of my favorite books by Geoffry A. Moore)

I have thoroughly enjoyed working in the field of Video Analytics over the last 10 years. It is an area which has many successful stories, however, adoption of this technology is still at an early stage. One of the key issues impinging further adoption is the balance between user expectations and technology fit.

Video analytics is not typically an ‘out of the box’ technology for every given scenario. But if used correctly, it can radically change the way we do things. It just needs to be used in the right way and above all- deliver real value to the customer.

When we started Kinesense, everyone else was focusing on real time detection. We asked ourselves “where does this technology work really well and solve a big problem?” That’s when we decided to focus on video search or post event analysis. Over the years, we have worked with the international law enforcement community and helped them save enormous time sifting through video. Last year we saved 25,000 hours for a single department (a potential cost of over Euro 500k).  However, selling video analytics requires end users to have a little insight to how the technology works and sellers need to take this on board.

One of the things which we did in the ERNCIP group, was to draft a short overview document for end users as an introduction to video analytics. This document outlines the basics of video analytics technology, how it is used and its advantages in the security domain. It aims to draw end users’ attention to the key factors which must be taken into account when considering its adoption. It is aimed at managers, security personnel, law enforcement officers and other end-users who are new video analytics. This report should help the end user engage initially with potential providers of video analytics. ‘Video Analytics Adoption – Key considerations for the end user’ is available at http://bit.ly/2cllQe8

I am glad to report that this is only the tip of the iceberg on what is being produced by the ERNCIP group.  For those of you with a keen interest in video analytics, check out the ERNCIP site.

Happy reading!

Sarah