The movie “the Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” was one of my favorites growing up. While the movie has a variety of memorable moments, the best one features Mia as she sneaks out of the castle at night, climbing down a vine and inspiring a rousing round of awkward singing from her maids to keep the queen distracted.

During this scene, the movie flips to an image of the security guards playing a game of chess while occasionally checking the video monitors. They check the screens just often enough to catch the uneventful footage of the rest of the grounds, missing the hilarious (though very brief) shots of Mia as she clumsily climbs down the side of the castle.

This scene might be exaggerated, but it underscores the imperfect reality of relying on people to monitor security camera feeds.

People get bored, zone out, fall asleep, look elsewhere—they literally can’t help it. (Our attention spans aren’t very big when faced with a dull, monotonous task like watching a surveillance feed—think 20 minutes or less before we start to lose focus in a big way.)

While—20 years after “the Princess Diaries 2” came out—we still rely on security cameras for surveillance, this scene relying so heavily on human boredom and error would no longer be a reality for a modern-day surveillance system. Why? Thanks to artificial intelligence and advanced detection capabilities, surveillance systems no longer rely on people to stare endlessly at screens. Instead, AI sounds the alarm as soon as something isn’t quite as it should be. (Sorry, Mia, but you wouldn’t have made it to that romantic getaway nowadays!)

Artificial intelligence has made security surveillance systems everywhere more efficient and effective, allowing for a significantly more proactive approach to security.

AI and Advanced Detection

The earliest forms of motion detection in business security cameras were generally based on pixels. If the number of pixels changed, something had moved or changed in the camera’s frame, which then triggered an alert to the security team so they could check the appropriate camera. With outdoor cameras, however, this movement-based approach had a problem: the most common motion triggers weren’t actual causes for concern, but rather wind-blown branches, animals, or even passing headlights causing a reflective glare.

These alerts could be so frequent, that it could trigger dozens of false alarms in a given night. This might have been a step up from relying solely on security guards watching the cameras, but not by much.

Artificial intelligence, however, knows how to tell the difference between swaying tree branches and an intruder, giving much more accurate alerts and updates to the responsible parties. Some platforms will even allow you to draw out specific detection zones, saving your alerts for perimeter breaches and other onsite issues.

AI and Analytics

It doesn’t take long for several security cameras to generate a collective hundred hours of footage. The more cameras you have, the more there is to slog through, creating a difficult—if not sometimes impossible—task for a person trying to find specific information.

AI takes that impossible task and makes it look ridiculously easy as it instantly processes hundreds of hours of footage, allowing the person overseeing the process to focus only on the relevant scenes in their search.

Business security cameras with advanced video analytics can even take it a step further, learning what is normal for behavior patterns and what is not. This allows for the real-time identification of potential security threats, enabling you to react before the situation escalates further.

AI-powered systems can analyze behavior patterns with significantly more accuracy than humans are able to, largely in part because the computer can focus solely on the behaviors, whereas people get distracted by appearances and other differences.

The Benefits of AI

Artificial intelligence offers several benefits in the world of security and surveillance, affecting everything from response times to your businesses’ bottom line.

Improved response times

Advanced detection enables accurate alerts to the appropriate party. These alerts, coupled with remote monitoring capabilities, enable the recipient to immediately verify the problem and respond accordingly. Depending on the situation, this response could be to activate loudspeakers and lights on a mobile security unit or to contact law enforcement.

Better deployment of resources

Since AI allows you to have a clearer picture of what’s going on through the lens of your business security cameras, you can more effectively deploy your resources on a number of levels. Instead of wasting manpower by parking several security officers in front of monitors for hours on end (where they will likely become distracted anyway), you can use that same security personnel in other areas and to verify and respond to AI-identified issues.

The analytics side of AI also allows you to see where you might be more effective with your business, your security, and more.

Significant cost savings

In addition to reduced manpower needs when it comes to the actual monitoring of your cameras, AI allows you to save money in other areas as well:

• Product and material costs: Intervening when it comes to suspicious behavior can stop a crime before it starts (potentially saving product and avoiding property damage).
• Operational costs: Analytics can improve efficiencies, which can save on operational costs.
• Employee hours: AI can collect relevant evidence in a fraction of the time, saving hours and hours of an employee sifting through video footage in the case of an incident.

Interested in enhancing your own security measures? LiveView Technologies offers mobile security units with advanced detection capabilities and a comprehensive VMS platform. Contact LVT for your free demo today.