Milestone research: Video, metadata, operational intelligence

Interesting piece of news in my inbox this morning having to do with research that VMS provider Milestone Systems (recently acquired by Canon)  is working on.

The VMS provider is working with Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Aalborg University, Securitas and Nabto, on a research project that looks at using video for operational intelligence.

The news release said that Milestone is putting some of the research into practice already. From the release: “Research that is ongoing in a 3-year project to develop technological innovations is already paying off: the latest release of Milestone XProtect 2014 launched a new metadata framework that vastly improves the speed of searching and analysis with the video software. … Milestone's software manages video for security uses, but can also support and optimize activities in production, logistics, marketing, sales, healthcare, intelligent buildings, environmental control, and other analytical applications. Thanks to the XProtect open platform architecture, other companies are integrating software applications with Milestone's video management software to adapt it for particular operational needs in different business sectors.”

The Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation provided funding (DKK 15 million) for the project. The goal is “to interpret the recorded video material so the content can be described automatically.”

In a prepared statement, Hans Jorgen Skovgaard, Milestone VP of R&D said:
"We are still in phase one and expect to present to the market several new solutions for searching in metadata—the framework has already been released in XProtect 2014. During the next phases, we will do research among other things on how the software can learn to distinguish between normal and abnormal activity in video images. This means video surveillance can proactively give an alert before an incident occurs, and further enable use as a business tool in many more operational scenarios. … For example, if there is an accident or an assault at a bus station, the police or security personnel can search for the exact area where the incident happened by linking GPS coordinates with the video recordings from the buses, and within a few seconds they will have the relevant recording of the offender or other people involved.”
 
The release says that the metadata technology “can also be used with mobile phones as moving security cameras where GPS coordinates and compass information can be stored with the video. Operators thereby will know precisely where the video was recorded. Used in this way, mobile phones can increase security and safety, and threatening behavior can easily be proven. The technology can also be used as evidence of pollution emissions, for resolving insurance claims, or many other applications yet to be explored.”