How Is AI Used In Physical Security And Surveillance

In a perfect world, we could leave the keys in our cars and have the front doors to our homes unlocked without care. Unfortunately, the reality is that we need to protect our belongings and the buildings we work in from vandalism and theft. This is why we spend 100s of billions on security worldwide.

As we increase technology in this digital age, artificial intelligence strengthens our efforts with precision and speed. Companies are implementing this type of tech in their security infrastructure to enhance the role that guards, cameras and patrolling provide to create a better presence and force for protection. 

Are you curious about the role of AI in this field? Here is how AI is used in physical security and surveillance.

Facial Recognition

Security restricts access to people who wish to disrupt an event and harm guests. While anyone can be a potential perpetrator, most threats are from those with a history of chaos. You need to be able to monitor people in real-time and identify someone who may be a threat by matching them to a criminal database. Security guards can only do so much, so AI security must be implemented.

Facial recognition technology can monitor guests gaining entry and moving around at an event and scan their biometrics with digital images and video. It then can quickly check databases for matches and uses feature-based and knowledge-based approaches to verify and identify persons in crowds and the background.

Video Surveillance 

Capturing video footage is great for helping identify criminals and analyzing a crime after it has happened. For it to also catch criminals in the act, there must be enough personal watching monitors, which can be tough in buildings and events where multiple cameras are scattered around large areas. Fortunately, AI is there to get rid of this limitation. 

The software can scan and analyze large amounts of recorded video footage and, in real-time, look for anomalies and violent behaviour patterns to quickly assess a volatile situation and notify security. AI makes cognitive decisions for potential threats to prevent criminal acts and reacts fast when they happen. It applies machine learning to enhance its programmed criteria and learns behaviour patterns as it alters its algorithms to better distinguish conduct that is a potential threat.

Patrol

There is no escaping from human security guards having a presence when you need to fortify a building or event. They can not only scan for potential problems, but they are also there to handle the situation before it escalates. The problem again is manpower and the ability to see everywhere all the time. This is where AI takes patrolling up a few notches.

Patrolling and monitoring can be achieved through robots and drone patrol, which decreases the chance of injury to life and is a stronger deterrent because of enhanced presence. Drones can get a bird’s eye view of a larger area and see things that a regular security guard can’t, so they are vital for protecting large-scale venues and outdoor spaces where security is necessary. 

Access Control Systems

 Whether it is a company building, event space or outdoor venue, you need to allow access and can restrict it as well. This type of control must be barrier-free so those attending events or working within a building can come and go with as little inconvenience.  

AI technologies can be implemented into entry points so people don’t have to be scanned or patted down because of frictionless gateway screening for guns and other weapons. This allows a quick response to disable a threat before it has time to manifest. For building security, access control systems use facial recognition and other biometric technologies to identify those allowed to enter and do away with the need for keys, security badges and FOBs. These entry devices can be easily lost or stolen, but AI removes the worry and gives you 24-hour protection at all entry points. 

Object Tracking

Along with AI video surveillance and the ability to scan databases for suspects, AI can also track an object through all feeds in real-time and record to indicate movement in a crowd and original entry points and exits. This can be handled in post-incident analysis and can use vision algorithms to segment defined categories of objects and people. It then detects and watches those objects through various recorded and live video feeds to track movement and layout pathways that intruders took. This helps to strengthen weak points in the future as well. 

This is where AI is now, and the future will only scale to greatly enhance the ability to provide security and surveillance. AI is not the bad guy but an effective companion for keeping people and property safe and sound.