US Government Agency Highlights Analytics Failure

Author: Brian Karas, Published on Jul 15, 2016

Count the US government among those not satisfied with video analytics.

A US government agency held a workshop on video analytics for public safety. We spoke with Conference Chair John Garofolo to understand what was discussed at the event and what government and public safety officials are looking for in video analytics.

In this report, we share their concerns, what they are looking for and how commercial analytics providers are still far from truly meeting that.

***** *** ** ********** ***** ***** *** ********* **** ***** analytics.

* ** ********** ****** **** ********* ** ***** ********* *** ****** ******. ** ***** **** ********** ********* ********** ********** **** *** ********* ** *** ***** *** **** government *** ****** ****** ********* *** ******* *** ** ***** analytics.

** **** ******, ** ***** ***** ********, **** **** *** looking *** *** *** ********** ********* ********* *** ***** *** from ***** ******* ****.

[***************]

What *** ** **********/****** ****** *****

***** ********* ** ****** ****** ********** ***** **** **** *** looking *** ****-**** ****** ******:

  • ************* ******** ********* - ********, ****** ******* ** *****, ****** falling ** *****/****** ******
  • ***-*****/******* ***** ********* - ********* ***** **** ****** ** **** blockages
  • ********** ****** -********* **** * ******* ****** ** ****** ** ******* ** a ******** ****** ** ******

**** **** ********** **** ****** ******** ***** ******** ** *** security ********, **** *********, ** ********* *** *** ************ ****** for ***** *****.

Security ************* *** **** ** *******

**** ***** ***** ********* **** **** ** ********** ******* ** public ****** *********, *** ********** ***** ********* ** *** *** specifically. **** *** **** ********** ** *****, *** *** ******* requirements ** ********* "************* ******" ** ****** ******, ******* ********** lots ** ******* ****** ******** **** *** ******** ****** "**** Thinking".

*** ******* ** **** *********** ******** ********* ********* *** *** focused ** ****** ***** *********, *** *** ******* ** ***** understanding *** ****** ***** *** *** ******* *** ****** ** interacting ** **** *****.

How ***** ********* *** **** *****

******** ********* ** * ****** ******* ***** ** ********* ******* today.********* ********* ***** ** ****** ** * ***** ******* *****, with ************ **** ********* *** ****** *******, ******** ********* ** reduce *** ****** ** **-**** ******, ** *** ****** ****** more ***********.

*** ******** ********* ******* ** ******** ** ****** ******, *** the ********** ***** ********* **** *** ******* ****** ****** ************ enough ** ** ** *****.

Limited ******* ****** ** ** ****

***** ***** *** * *** ******** ***** ******** ********** ********** to ** **** **** ** ******* ***, *** ** **** have **** ******** / ******** *****:

  • ***** ****- ****** ***** **** $*** ******* ** *******, ******** ****** of *******, ****** **** ******** ** ***-******** *** **** **** to *******, *** ******* ********** **** *** ***** *** **** of ********* *** *********** **** * ********* ************ ***** ******
  • *******- ******* ****** **** ***** *********, ******* ****** ********* *** and ****** ****** ****** ***********
  • ***- ******* ***********, ******* ********* ****** ****** *** *******, ** clear ***** ** *********

Big *** ***** ******

**** *** ** ********** ****** ***** *** **** ********** ********* are ********** ***** *** * *** ***. *** ****** ***** has **** ** ***** ** *********** ******, ***** *** ******* value *** ****** ****** ************. ********* ********* ***** ******** ** deliver ******* **** *** ****** ***** ****** ******* **** ******* critical ****** ******** ** ******* **********.

Comments (8)

Undisclosed Manufacturer #1

07/15/16 02:33pm

What they are asking for sounds like the sort of solutions that are most likely to be provided by those who lead in deep learning research, large companies like Google, Microsoft perhaps... and hopefully they'll make their solutions available to the rest of us. Nvidia has some great new GPU hardware that would be ideal for incorporating modern machine learning solutions into VMSs, but I think they may need to come down in price a bit. Another thing that needs to happen is for the US government not to hamper the industry with their patent system, but the chances of getting the US government to understand their incompetence in this area zero, zip, zilch...

Avatar

Brian Karas

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #1 | 07/15/16 03:49pm

What they are asking for sounds like the sort of solutions that are most likely to be provided by those who lead in deep learning research

Yes, I completely agree. One thing I have said multiple times over the years is that "video analytics" is too generic of a terms to apply to as many things as we do.

I think it would be beneficial for the security industry to start defining video analytics sub-functions with words or terms that better describe how the system works or what it does. Similar to how we can describe cameras in terms of resolution or physical interface, etc.

Undisclosed Manufacturer #1

In reply to Brian Karas | 07/15/16 07:49pm

The other thing I note, is that just by "asking" for these features, sort of implies that they have an expectation that the industry can deliver, or will be able to the not-too-distant future. That is they are aware of the significant breakthroughs that have happened in machine learning recently. If they had asked for the same solutions 15 years ago, they may have made them selves look silly.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #1 | 07/15/16 08:20pm

If they had asked for the same solutions 15 years ago, they may have made them selves look silly.

10 years ago at 3VR, I talked with a number of government / public safety people who wanted these types of things and even more wild.

For example, I had an intelligence agency person ask if we could alert if a guy boards a train with a package at one station and exits at another station without the package. He was seriously unimpressed when I said no.

That is they are aware of the significant breakthroughs that have happened in machine learning recently.

I think the simpler explanation is that those are simply their needs.

Undisclosed Integrator #2

In reply to Brian Karas | 07/15/16 07:53pm

It sounds like there are a few tiers structured thusly:

  • VMD - VMS or camera side motion detection. Used to be considered analytics but should really be stricken from the list.
  • Basic Analytics - Crossed line detection, dropped object, PTZ tracking, etc.
  • Moderate Analytics - Avigilon/AgentVI/Bosch IVA/etc which can be run camera side and classify objects. Basic LPR (e.g. OCR) would likely fall here.
  • Advanced Analytics - Advanced LPR, retail analytics, facial recognition, etc.
  • Mythological Analytics - All the analytics that have been mentioned as of late which seem far-fetched. Examples include: Age/gender classification, predictive behavior recognition, noise analytics, etc.
  • Deep learning/cloud analytics - the particularly complex, processing heavy analytics which are still in their infancy.

Is that accurate?

Avatar

Brian Karas

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 07/15/16 08:07pm

I think it is a thoughtful segmentation, but I do not think it is accurate.

For example, in "Basic Analytics", there is no way "dropped object" should fall in that category. In fact, non-human/vehicle object detection should be a unique category (IMO).

I was thinking something more like:

Perimeter Protection - Classify a human, and ignore non-human objects, in a "sterile zone" style application. This implies something that is reasonably good at picking up people, and ignoring other objects, but is not concerned with things like crowd detection, or accurately classifying a group of people.

Business Intelligence - Analytics that focus on counting and path tracking. Should be able to reasonably count a large group accurately, but less concerned with object rejection (for their standard applications you would be unlikely to have to deal with animals or other common false-alarm objects).

Behavior and Gesture Recognition - Can accurately track multiple persons in a scene, and identify basic gestures like waving arms, pushing, or actions like falling down, fighting/aggressive interaction, etc.

OCR - Anything that can read text or symbols in an image. This would include LPR functions, but also things like recognizing logo's or glyphs to alert on, or ignore.

This is just a short list, not meant to be comprehensive. Where the analytics run (camera, server, cloud) is a secondary classification, and while some functions might limit them to running only in a server or cloud environment today, they may be able to run within a camera in X years, so I would not make that part of the analytics definition.

Undisclosed Manufacturer #1

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 07/15/16 08:25pm

Deep learning/cloud analytics - the particularly complex, processing heavy analytics which are still in their infancy.

Deep learning, i.e.neural networks, was in its infancy 20, 30 years ago, but seems to have come of age in recent years.

Jose Gerardo Rosiles

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #1 | 08/01/16 04:41pm

Deep Learning is the state of the art in object recognition/classification, but it is far from being the solution to *all* AI problems. It has become another bandwagon for researchers who are now proposing incremental work only.

Deep learning is still doing the lower level brain-like operations, but progress in higher level machine reasoning is just a bunch of heuristics and very little theory. I can see "200" different approaches for tracking and recognizing object on a video, but none of them have a formal theoretical framework.

BTW, my background is on signal/image processing and I remember stories from professors were army people will come to them seriously asking for mind reading technology.

Login to read this IPVM report.
Why do I need to log in?
IPVM conducts unique testing and research funded by member's payments enabling us to offer the most independent, accurate and in-depth information.

Related Reports

Large Hospital Security End User Interview on Mar 21, 2019
This large single-state healthcare system consists of many hospitals, and hundreds of health parks, private practices, urgent care facilities, and...
BCDVideo Expansion And Switch From HP To Dell Examined on Mar 11, 2019
BCDVideo says they have more than tripled revenue in the past 5 years and are continuing to grow, powered most recently by switching their lead...
Church Technology Director Security Interview on Mar 07, 2019
With 40+ years of experience in IT from a wide array of verticals, including US and foreign military, and large corporate and industrial settings,...
Police Department Surveillance Manager Interview on Feb 28, 2019
Former Memphis PD Surveillance Manager, Lt. Joseph Patty retired months ago, but kept busy during his decades on the force, working to build up...
BluB0x Company Profile on Feb 20, 2019
BluB0x has doubled in revenue every year since its founding in 2013, according to CEO Patrick Barry. We originally reported on them in 2015. At the...
Solink Raises $12 Million - Company Profile on Feb 12, 2019
Most industry professionals have never heard of Solink, a company whose tagline is: It's time to revolutionize the way business uses...
Dahua Intercom Tested on Feb 07, 2019
Video intercoms are a growing market with video surveillance manufacturers expanding into this niche. IPVM is continuing its series of video...
ONVIF Video Surveillance Tutorial on Jan 29, 2019
ONVIF is well known within the surveillance industry as an interface to connect IP cameras and VMS systems. However, new users may find it...
Bosch Favorability Results 2019 on Jan 23, 2019
Bosch's favorability moderately strengthed, in new IPVM integrator statistics over their results from 2017, with 2019 results showing strong net...
Intersec 2019 Show Report on Jan 23, 2019
The 2019 Intersec show, held annually in Dubai, is now complete. IPVM attended for 3 days, interviewing numerous Chinese and Western video...

Most Recent Industry Reports

Silicon Valley Cybersecurity Insurance Startup Coalition Profile on Mar 20, 2019
Many industry people believe cybersecurity insurance is not worth it, as the voting and debate in our Cybersecurity Insurance For Security...
Covert IP Camera Shootout - Axis, Hanwha, Hikvision, March, Vivotek on Mar 20, 2019
Covert cameras were one of the last holdout areas for analog cameras. However, in the past few years, IP / HD covert cameras have become...
Top Metrics For Ensuring Integrator Profitability - Statistics on Mar 20, 2019
How do integrators ensure the profitability of their projects? As part of our profitability study, 100+ integrators answered the following...
Avigilon Launches 'Renewed Products Program' on Mar 19, 2019
There are lots of 'pre-owned' cars but pre-owned IP cameras? While such programs are common in other industries, in video surveillance, they are...
Hanwha Tax Evasion Probe, Camera Division Implicated on Mar 19, 2019
A Hanwha group subsidiary was raided as part of a tax evasion probe. While a Korean news media report listed the raided entity as 'Hanwha...
Genetec Security Center 5.8 Tested on Mar 19, 2019
Genetec has released Version 5.8. This comes after a wait of more than a year that caused frustrations for many Genetec partners. Our previous...
Retired Mercury President Returns As Open Options President on Mar 18, 2019
Open Options experienced major changes in 2018, including being acquired by ACRE and losing its President and General Manager, John Berman who...
Large US University End-User Video Surveillance Interview on Mar 18, 2019
Schools have become targets in modern days of active shooters and terrorist fears. The need for video and access security is high. Universities...
Hikvision Favorability Results 2019 on Mar 18, 2019
Hikvision favorability results declined significantly in IPVM's 2019 study of 200+ integrators. While in 2017 Hikvision's favorability was...
ONVIF Favorability Results 2019 on Mar 15, 2019
In the past decade, ONVIF has grown from a reaction to the outside Cisco-lead PSIA challenge, to being the de facto video surveillance standard...

The world's leading video surveillance information source, IPVM provides the best reporting, testing and training for 10,000+ members globally. Dedicated to independent and objective information, we uniquely refuse any and all advertisements, sponsorship and consulting from manufacturers.

About | FAQ | Contact