ioimage Video Analytics
Dec. 12, 2008 — What's "video analytics"? And why does the company called ioimage spell its name lowercase, like e.e. cummings or TV's thirtysomething? Well, we can answer both questions. As to the first, it's the collective name for video and surveillance devices with software that can automatically detect, follow and alert you to intruders; to stationary objects being removed; to vehicles moving in a prohibited direction; and all sorts of other things that can send Big Brother shivers up your spine. As to the second question: Why, to be annoying, of course!
The eight-year-old Israeli company, which has a U.S. headquarters in Texas, has online demonstrations of how video analytics works, which is probably a better way to describe it than me trying to tell you — and also better than their trying to to tell you, since the ioimage website writers tend to use corporate-speak that's almost satirical: "Video analytics enhance surveillance effectiveness by automating the time-critical task of monitoring video and detecting events."
Aside from automating some security functions and using image-recognition software to spot particular things and movements, what kinds of crazy, over-the-top things will video analytics let you do? Never thought you'd ask! According to a June 2008 article in the trade magazine Security Products, an ioimage system in two apartment buildings in Tokyo was designed so that "images of suspicious people are projected onto a large screen on the buildings' outside walls, in plain view of passers-by. Using ... automatic autonomous PTZ [camera pan, tilt, zoom] tracking capabilities, the system provides self-directed, vision-guided tracking to keep a moving target in constant focus.... [It] substantially reduced costs for the residential complex by eliminating the need for security guards to constantly monitor video feed."
All of it sounds customized, and none of it sounds cheap, but what price can you put on security? Well, you can find out either through the company directly or from its U.S. distributors and representatives.
ioimage • 109 S. Woodrow Lane, #700, Denton, Texas 76205 • (940) 383-2913 • toll-free (877) 383-2913 • info@ioimage.com