Video Analytics? You’re talking about TV umpires, right?

 

Well, sort of. And a little bit more. Video Analytics is one of the most innovative emerging technologies out there today. It holds a lot of promise for a variety of applications, and over the next few weeks we will take deep dives into a few of them. For now, let us take you through a brief overview of what it is, what it does and what it promises.

OK, so tell me what it is…

 

Firstly, it is important to understand that the “video” we are talking about here is not the video of your 3^rd birthday, or the video of your prom dance. We are talking more about live camera feeds, etc. Think CCTV and you’ll get what we mean. Or even think Live TV – the sort of feeds that TV umpires watch.

When you are looking at a video, you are identifying patterns or you are trying to detect behaviour or you are trying to analyse throughputs (or you are a veteran procrastinator). The idea behind Video Analytics is that this video or stream can be analysed for the above reasons using clever algorithms and programs rather than me and you (or a poor policewoman in the London tube) having to sit and monitor all of it. Excited yet?

Getting there. So what does it actually do….

 

A video or a stream is nothing more than a collection of images. Lots and lots of images. By writing some very clever code, and understanding the behaviour patterns and how to map them onto the video, we can analyse a whole host of things. We can see if someone has parked his or her car correctly. Or we can see if the face we are looking for is boarding any of the planes leaving the airport. Or we can also play games. You know about Kinect, right? That’s also Video Analytics as we will see in a few weeks.

Bravo! So, what else can it do?

 

For that, you must return to our blog next week. We will try to share a variety of applications that Video Analytics could be used for. It’s really ground breaking and exciting stuff. If we haven’t got you hooked in the next few weeks, then…well, then we’ll keep trying.

Wait, wait, wait…. I didn’t get who you were? 

 

Ah! Nearly forgot. We are the Majo Pundits – six very talented, international and technology-focussed budding managers currently pursuing their MBA at IE Business School. We are Catalina Tejero, Hasan Sadigli, Kyle Fraser, Marcelo M. Fonseca, Pierre Landolt and Ushinor Dey. As part of our Technology and Innovation Management course, we are researching this topic under the guidance of Professor Gregory Truman and we want to keep you updated and posted on our work.

We know that you can’t wait till next week, but till then, we’ll leave you with this little video that should get your adrenaline pumping: