Video Surveillance & the Rise of Smartphones

I’ve worked at Axis for more than 15 years. In that time, I’ve frequently been asked what the difference is between analogue and IP surveillance.

Trying to come up with an elevator pitch for IP cameras is difficult because of the breadth of application use cases available, from conventional security and surveillance to a more recent trend toward business optimization. In fact, the use cases would likely vary wildly, depending on whom I’m pitching. An installer would want something different from the end user, and a retailer would want something different from a security manager responsible for critical infrastructure.

For this reason, I often use the analogy of mobile phone technology. Today’s mobile phones aren’t really phones, and the tablet revolution started long before the iPad. It started when we all began carrying smartphones.

Consumer demand
The exponential growth in the use of these devices reflects customer demand shifting from analogue to digital technology. There are uncanny parallels to be drawn with the rapid growth of the IP surveillance market. Customers are readily embracing the shift from analogue to digital network cameras.

Just as smartphone users experience HD-quality video and share content seamlessly with friends, end users are becoming more tech savvy and demanding that surveillance keep pace with the rest of consumer technology. Why can they get HD images on a phone camera but not on a surveillance camera? And why can they make live video calls on a smartphone but not get live video feeds from a security system anytime, anywhere?

In a recent Centre for Retail Research survey, 57 percent of retailers in Northern Europe expressed a desire to access in-store video surveillance from a smart mobile device. This suggests trends in the smartphone market are impacting the professional security industry. Just as a sleek design influences smartphone purchasing decisions, the survey also revealed that 60 percent of retailers viewed aesthetics as an important factor in security camera selection.

Click here to view Figure 1.

Third-party apps
One parallel with the smartphone industry that I find particularly interesting is that, in an industry driven by intense competition, a huge driver of customer attraction to smartphone devices is the availability of applications. But a lot of the innovation on smartphones wasn’t done by manufacturers like Apple or Samsung, but by the hordes of developers using their technology to create clever applications that no one else had ever considered.

With more third-party analytic applications now available in the network video market, customers are increasingly exploring the possibility of deploying network cameras with applications that embed and run on board network camera. A few years ago, the prospect of running license plate recognition on board a network camera was considered a pipe dream, but today it is a reality. Embedded audio analytics that detect aggression and automatically generate a video-verified alarm can help companies strengthen health and safety compliance for lone workers. Applications such as people counting and heat maps can generate useful business intelligence that optimizes business processes and ultimately impacts the bottom line.

Surveillance as management tool
These represent just a few examples of how the network video surveillance market is mirroring the trend of embedding applications in smartphones. People are increasingly seeing IP cameras not just as surveillance tools, but also as all-around digital business solutions. Like mobile phones, it’s a technology that continues to develop out of a blend of technical innovation and revolutionary software design.

Phones are no longer seen as devices for making calls. They are now more rounded devices that help users to manage their lives and get things done. I’d predict that attitudes toward surveillance cameras will shift to a point where they are seen as tools that help businesses manage risk, improve their efficiency, and deliver real business value.

We can see plenty of evidence that consumer innovations are driving the camera market, but as much as this is true, manufacturers are also pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

At Axis, we’re innovating for a smarter and safer world, and our aim is to be constantly striving to do more with camera technology. As each new generation of our network cameras allow more advanced applications to run on board the camera, our global network of 1,000-plus application development partners have a platform to drive innovation and the trend toward smarter video surveillance. As with mobile phones, businesses will want to get more out of this technology than just basic features.

Click here to view Figure 2.

Predictive surveillance
In fact, such is the level of progress that I would predict that we’re going to see an accelerated shift away from forensic monitoring of CCTV and toward predictive surveillance — cameras that anticipate incidents before they happen. Of course, this technology could be used to prevent criminal activity, but operators and managers will also want to consider applications in areas like health and safety, where accidents could be prevented.

These two strands of innovation are pushing forward the convergence to IP. Perhaps more importantly, they are expanding our understanding of how the technology can be used and what it can achieve.

Some people view mobile phone technology as starting to plateau, but I’m a firm believer that camera innovation is just getting started.