Why Visual Analytics for surveillance in retails?(security from shoplifters)

Visual analytics have changed the face of surveillance since their invention and have assisted companies, households, and the government to maintain security. Terrorism is a great threat to every nation, which is why, surveillance, came into being in the first place. To prevent any malicious activity that may cause harm to the surroundings, surveillance is the form of security that needs to be employed in every street. The omnipotent technology of video analytics has come a long way and the advancement of technology is all set it to take it further in the years to come.

Visual analytics in India: an overview

A home to 1.2 billion people, the video surveillance industry in India has registered a CAGR of 27.16 percent and is all set to cross the market size of $840 billion. This whopping statistics is though impressive, the country is still dominated by outdated surveillance systems, and that is when we need to address the elephant in the room. IP- driven systems, on the other hand, are modern surveillance tools, deployed to monitor a given region, suspecting malicious activity and nervous behavior and effectively preventing crime. Security is one of the major concerns, the IP-driven surveillance systems is a call that the government needs to make, tightening security and driving change as a result.

Apart from national security, on the whole, retail stores have adopted this technology as a part of their lives and have had peace of mind since. With large retail stores to run, the owners are often vulnerable to theft and shoplifting, causing losses. With so many people in a retail store, keeping an eye on each and every person seems tedious. You blink for a second, and something valuable is stolen from the store. That’s how quick thieves act. Shoplifting has become a regular practice and is frowned upon by retailers. To help them prevent this kind of malicious practice, video analytics has saved the day for them.

What is shoplifting?

During the festive season when people crowd the markets to shop, it may be annoying for some, but is bliss for the shoplifters. Shoplifting is referred to the act of stealing goods and other valuable items from a functioning retail establishment. In short, it means stealing in s retail store without being noticed. It’s taking goods without paying for them and leaving the store with the items hidden in pockets or in the clothes of the thief. Cheap and low standard as it sounds; the act of shoplifting has caused losses worth thousands of rupees to the retail stores, greatly affecting their turnover.

This act of stealing has led to the deployment of surveillance systems to keep a track of the customers in a store and to monitor their movements. CCTV surveillance is quite common nowadays and is used by almost every retailer, small or large, to prevent theft and protect their belongings.

Video analytics has been a great help in monitoring the movement of the people in a retail establishment and catching hold of the suspicious ones and accordingly taking action.

About video analytics

In contrast to the surveillance system that has been in the industry for all these years, video analytics has changed the way surveillance is done. It’s time to move away from the traditional surveillance requiring a security guard to monitor the store via a CCTV camera, looking for suspicious activity, if any. Video analytics doesn’t require a human being to monitor people in a store but uses software that does the job. The video management software uses video analytics to monitor the retail establishment for you, and alert you of any suspicious activity. So all you need to do is take a quick look into your system playing the video and take immediate action. The newest surveillance technology is a treat to retailers, offering better security, reducing human efforts.

How video analytics works

1. The video analytics software connects to the various cameras installed in the store at different angles and monitors the store collectively. It filters data irrespective of the source and notifies when there is any skepticism.

2. It filters data by looking at the footage that is clean and doesn’t need processing and keeps the footage that needs to be processed further.

3. The video analytics software then takes the help of algorithms to determine the normality and abnormalities in the footage. The algorithm used can be statistical or that involving deep learning (AI).

4. The video analytics gets rid of all the normal footage so that only anomalous footage is shown on the monitors that can be focused upon.

5. The final stage is the human review, wherein after all the processing is done by the video analytics software, only 5 percent of the date is remaining for the staff to review and see if any action needs to be taken.

Here are some areas where video analytics can be used

• Facial recognition: by matching the geometrical metrics of a human face with the image in the database.
• Counting the people in a store and seeing as to how much time they are spending.
• Motion detection and sending alerts on account of suspicious activity.

Advantages of video surveillance system

• This intelligent innovation is hands-on with the security management system, as the video analytics software monitors movement and alerts the retailer if it detects anything suspicious.
• Video analytics has reduced the workload of the security staff through its efficient operations and has proved to be highly effective.
• The system works even when you close your store. The video analytics software sends you a notification via mail if there is a break in or an accident so that you can take action in time.
• The ability of video analytics to notify in case of anomalous events has greatly reduced the pressure to have stored footage, relieving computers off the burden of limited storage space.

Video analytics is all praises

The incorporation of video analytics as a part of the surveillance system has not only improved the efficiency of operations but has saved a great deal of money by preventing theft and putting those disguised thieves behind bars. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are slowly making their way into the lives of the people, with their multi-tasking abilities and thus increasing the dependency on them. The retailers those who have deployed video analytics into their CCTV surveillance systems have breathed a sigh of relief with the graph of shoplifting facing a downfall. Those who have not, are increasingly becoming aware of the qualities that video analytics encompasses and the benefits associated with it, and are installing software to enhance monitoring and catch hold of the ones who think that they’re smart enough to fool the technology.

Conclusion

The installation of video analytics has not only eliminated shoplifting to a considerable extent but has also made sure that no one challenges the system through its intelligent operations. So if you are looking to increase your turnover this year, and have had numerous shoplifting instances, there isn’t time to cry over spilled milk. So make use of the latest technology and save yourself the hassle of human monitoring systems by installing video analytics to your system as soon as possible.