Exploring The Latest CCTV Technology

The CCTV market has proven tremendously vibrant due in part to increasing concerns of both home and business owners about rising levels of crime. Whether or not this opinion is justified or is a mindset promoted by media coverage of criminal activity is beside the point – it has meant that CCTV innovation continues at a rapid pace. New technology continues to increase the effectiveness of the monitoring equipment.

Here are some of the latest CCTV innovations that will reach the market during the course of 2019, many of them based on the increasingly ‘smart’ nature of devices. Many of the newest technologies will be used by government and the security establishment – however, it is almost certain that these innovations will have an impact on home surveillance.

The first of these is the rise in CCTV systems that use vast databases and powerful algorithms for facial recognition. In some instances, the technology is used to compare the faces of those people wishing to enter a particular area with their identity documents. Other uses include comparing faces of those who are authorised to be there in order to identify those who might be a threat to the safety of others. The restricted environments could include schools or college campuses.

CCTV systems are also becoming much smarter. there are now powerful programs that can differentiate between normal behavior such as walking or spot those in public spaces that are behaving in a manner that is unusual (think running or stumbling). These cameras and the powerful processors that they are connected to make a judgment call on whether or not to alert the authorities if unusual behavior is spotted. The use of these cameras to ensure appropriate behavior in public spaces shows great promise. They may be able to assist authorities in reacting quickly to public disturbances.

The increasingly ‘smart’ nature of cities around the world is in part based on the rapidly advancing analytical power of processors working with information supplied by CCTV systems. take for instance the issue of traffic flow. Information on traffic density and flow is analysed based on information supplied by CCTV systems. An automated response then times traffic lights in order to optimise the flow of traffic. This aids in combating congestion. Other CCTV uses in modern cities include monitoring foot traffic and how that flows. This can be useful in optimising this flow – as well as allowing authorities to optimise disaster preparedness. If analysis indicates that one route away from the scene of the disaster is the most effective, then planning for that disaster can take this into account.

There seems to be a thread that runs through the narrative of the continued evolution of CCTV systems. This is the fact that artificial intelligence is becoming the norm for the machines in our lives. They are increasingly able to act autonomously – making decisions based on both analysis and vast amounts of shared data. There is no reason to assume that the ongoing development of CCTV will not be influenced by this trend.