Smart search in video surveillance systems

Everything around us today is becoming smart: clocks, houses and even cities. Smart search in the context of video surveillance is a set of useful features to speed up and simplify finding events in video.

Long gone are the days when searching for incidents on recordings took hours: you had to completely look through the video. Now the software will do the search for you. It can be configured so that the search is not needed at all. But first things first.

Motion Recording

Modern surveillance systems record only video segments where there is motion. In the settings, you set how many seconds of static frames before motion enters the recording. Cameras that have been around for the past few years already know how to distinguish between humans and not-so-large animals when detecting motion. But if a 70-pound guard dog walks around your yard, the camera won't figure out if it's a dog or a drunk neighbor on all fours, it will just record :)

Motion detection is a standard module. Identification of license plates and faces of people — this is an additional module that requires a separate license.

By the way, you can set the recording start not only by motion, but also by sound. This function is only available for those cameras that have a microphone installed.

Crossing Lines

When configuring the system for the first time, you can select the sections the intersection of which will be recorded by the motion detector. Depending on the task, the system will record this data into the memory or record it as an alarm and send a notification to the person in charge.

For example, if you are interested in how many people enter the cafe every day, crossing the line is recorded as an event. At the end of the day you will be able to open the statistics and estimate the passability of the place.

If you need to control access to the cash register, you can draw a line that separates the cash register from the bar on the customers' side. If someone tries to steal money, you will be the first to know. In the same way you can control the presence of an employee in the workplace. By the way, some supermarkets use infrared sensors for this purpose.

Alarm zones

Similar to the previous point, at the stage of setting up the system, zones are set. There should be no movement in them either in principle or at a certain period of time. For example, near the same cash register at a time when the cafe is closed.

It is also possible to set as a reaction not a notification, but recording in the memory. For example, you want to make it easier to search in the future and set an area that is likely to be of interest to you. Then you open the events — and see only the fragments you are interested in.

The alarm zones themselves and the different types of alarms (motion detection, tampering, audio detection, etc.) are already configured on the camera itself. Different cameras have different features. However, not all cameras have the ability to set alarm zones. And without this option, zone search will be impossible.

There are also camera models with the ability to install a memory card, allowing you to continue to record even in the absence of the Internet.

Smart search

Lines and zones are not always used when setting up, especially if the system is not installed in an organization, but, for example, in a residential home. But even with this option, the search can be greatly accelerated.

For example, you and your neighbors have hung cameras in the entryway and in the yard. Today you discover that someone scratched your car / stole a swing / was looking for treasure in the flowerbed at night. Then you open the archive of records of the camera that had the «scene of the crime» in its field of view. Then you select e.g. your car with a special tool and start searching in a given area in a certain time range.

In this case you see:

• You get out of your car.
• Your neighbor parks, opens the door, scratches your car, assesses the damage, and parks again.
• You walk up to your car in the morning and are perplexed.

Crime solved! It's easy!

Special software extensions can search for people in a crowd, register license plates of cars that come into view of cameras, and much more. Today, such capabilities are widely used in smart cities. So law enforcement can quickly find people and track cars. Just like in the movies, only for real!

The software used by Maxnet specialists allows both motion-based and full recording. Full recording is most justified in areas with constant traffic: stores, checkout areas, places of congestion.

If you are still thinking whether you need a video surveillance system, write to us at b2b@maxnet.ua. Our specialists will advise you and help you decide on the choice.