AI is the talk of the town across the world at this current time, the latest in a long strong of technological advancements that have revolutionised the security industry beyond recognition.

The potential effects of AI in all walks of life are extraordinary and quite frankly a bit unnerving but one area in which machine learning has already made a huge difference for good is in the CCTV camera market.

CCTV itself is not that new these days and police and security guards have been using camera technology to assist in the identification, interception, and conviction of criminals for several decades.

However, as AI improves, so too does the effectiveness of these systems. In the past, whilst CCTV had been hugely beneficial in dealing with criminal activity after it had occurred, revealing the exact details of an event that occurred and allowing the perpetrators to be tracked down and brought to justice, any real time action relied upon someone monitoring the live CCTV feeds at the time.

Many businesses simply can’t afford to have a security expert monitoring their CCTV feeds at every hour of the night and day and were therefore more susceptible to vandalism and theft.

With AI CCTV this has all changed. Nowadays, many routine activities that previously required manpower, such as alerting security to intruders, counting the number of people entering a site, or issuing an audio warning to any unauthorised individuals can all be carried out by the camera itself as long as they are fitted with the appropriate AI features.

AI CCTV features

Modern CCTV systems fitted with a layer of AI technology can add a huge amount to your security system. AI can be applied at pretty much any point of the CCTV monitoring process from camera to cloud.

Some of the smartest AI features that are often equipped on modern CCTV cameras and mobile CCTV towers include:

Virtual tripwires

CCTV cameras fitted with virtual tripwire technology allow you to add an extra level of security to key and vulnerable areas of your site that are most at risk. Choose exactly where you want these tripwires to be placed, and any breach will be met with a loud audio and visual warning.

Anyone crossing your tripwires into a high-risk area will be made very aware that they are being observed and that security is on the way. This usually leads to them beating a swift retreat.

Virtual tripwires can be set, altered, and redeployed without even having to attend the site in-person, remotely via mobile app. This allows you to alter your CCTV system to meet the changing needs of your property, particularly useful on construction sites where the nature of a project can change at a rapid rate.

Auto Tracking

One of the most helpful features of modern CCTV is auto tracking. Previously site security had been compromised by blind spots, just out of the range of static CCTV cameras and a large quantity of cameras would be needed to sufficiently protect a large area.

AI CCTV cameras will automatically detect the movement of an intruder and track it using PTZ (pan, Tilt, Zoom) technology. This ensures that anyone on your site without permission is observed at all times until they leave or are detained, reducing the risk of a lack of evidence allowing them to escape undetected.

Motion Detection

AI CCTV cameras not only automatically detect the movement of intruders, and issue warnings to them, and alert security, they also use their in-built AI coding to optimise their motion detection services over time.

One of the problems with early stage motion detection CCTV and alarms was that every tiny movement, such as a leaf, cat, or fox moving in the area would trigger a full-scale security response, resulting in a huge number of false alarms and causing a significant amount of unnecessary cost.

The intelligent analytics of modern AI CCTV, on the other hand, will be able to decipher between movement that is not a threat and movement that is, reducing the risk of false alarms. These cameras not only come programmed to ignore certain everyday movement, but over time will learn the regular movements of the site, continually optimising their systems and becoming more and more effective over the years.

Audio warnings

Nowadays, you can not only programme your CCTV tower or cameras to issue an audio warning to an intruder, but can actually speak directly to them in real time via a speaker attached to the system. When motion is detected you, or your security, will receive an alert via mobile app.

You can then log in and observe a 5G transmitted live stream, allowing you to assess the situation from afar. Depending on the situation you observe, you can then issue your own warning, or inform the intruder that security will be with them shortly.