Here's A Better Way To Review Surveillance Video

By The Business Solutions Network

There’s a lot to see at ASIS. The physical security industry conference and expo boasted more than 700 exhibitors showing the latest and greatest surveillance and access control solutions. Having only a few days to get around the floor, the sad fact is that I’m sure I missed seeing some very cool things while there last week. However, there is something I saw that impressed me quite a bit. Let me set the stage…

Imagine a situation where you’ve got an indoor camera pointed at the front entrance of a retailer. At the end of the day, the retailer notices that a piece of merchandise that was on display near the door is missing. Imagine also that spread within the course of those 12 hours, there were 12 customers who came through the door. You or your retail customer now have 12 hours of video footage to review to find the moment the item was swiped. Here’s where software from Briefcam can come in handy.

Briefcam takes hours of footage and compresses it into more manageable chunks by overlaying and timestamping all the events that happened within a timeframe. Rather than watch 12 hours of video, you’d review a couple minutes of video and each of the 12 customers would appear at once with a timestamp overlay.

Here’s a Youtube video that shows you how it works. Also, note that this functionality can be used to search by color or direction of movement. Very powerful!

While the example I gave was for retail, these analytics also have applications in other verticals. Really, the applications are unlimited. I bring this technology up as another example of how powerful video surveillance technology has become. If you’re on the fence about adding these technologies to your line card, you’re missing a fun and lucrative addition to your portfolio.