In video surveillance, multisensor cameras play a key role in monitoring large, wide areas. With AI, these cameras become even more powerful. This note looks at how users can benefit from multisensor cameras with AI features.
In video surveillance,
multisensor cameras play a key role in monitoring large, wide areas. With AI, these cameras become even more powerful. This note looks at how users can benefit from multisensor cameras with AI features.
Needless to say, wide area monitoring is an important part in
video surveillance. This is especially true for end users maintaining large, spacious areas for example airports, parking lots and warehouses. Yet the challenge has always been the fact these areas need to be covered by multiple cameras, which can be costly and cumbersome to deploy.
Multisensor cameras
Enter multisensor cameras, each containing multiple sensors in one housing. This offers various benefits. “Using only a single network cable and IP address, multi-sensor cameras take the place of several conventional cameras, allowing users to monitor multiple areas with one device,” said Uri Guterman, Head of Product and Marketing at Hanwha Vision Europe. “They offer significant cost savings for end users as they require far less cable, conduit and mounting hardware, and involve a single installation process, single power source, single IP address and single VMS license.”
“Multisensor IP cameras contain two or more stand-alone sensor/lens modules in a single housing. This gives the camera a much higher pixel density for each field of view resulting in a significantly higher image quality than what is available from a wide-angle lens paired to a single sensor. With more sensors contained in a single housing, installers and end-users benefit from reduced installation costs from the single mount and one network cable carrying both power and data,” said Rui Barbosa, Product Manager at i-PRO Americas. “Multisensor cameras also minimize the ports required on a PoE network switch while needing only a single software license for the VMS. These cameras also take up less space and are less intrusive than multiple individual cameras.”
Applications
The unique features of multisensor cameras make them ideal for any deployment where a high-quality,
wide area of coverage is desired. “Multisensor cameras are extremely versatile and are suitable for large indoor and outdoor areas, regardless of the vertical market. For example, at an airport, a multisensor camera can be installed indoors to keep the terminals safe and secure by effectively monitoring the flow of traffic in two directions or outdoors to monitor the airfield. At a school, it can be installed indoors to protect hallway intersections or outdoors to safeguard the parking lot. For cities, the multisensor camera can provide optimal coverage of major road intersections,” said Hamish Dobson, Corporate VP for Enterprise Physical Security at Motorola Solutions.
Empowered with AI
More and more, IP cameras are empowered by
AI-enabled video analytics, which add more intelligence to the camera. Multisensor cameras are not exempt from this trend.
“Adding AI to a multisensor camera means a user does not have to constantly monitor for events, as it automatically alerts operators to specifically configured events, for example, vehicles entering an area and people loitering. They also provide accurate object classification, object tracking, rapid event search and the possibility of edge-based business intelligence. Adding AI also reduces false alarms,” Guterman said.
“The addition of AI to a multisensor camera can turn video security systems from a reactive to a proactive solution. Security operators monitoring site cameras for long periods of time can experience attention fatigue and stress, which may result in events being missed. Multisensor cameras that come equipped with AI-powered video analytics can help detect and alert operators of potential events that may go unnoticed and need their attention, such as a person loitering or a vehicle trespassing, and help expedite response times and investigations,” Dobson said.
According to Barbosa, because AI-based analytics can be installed on each sensor, it allows much more customization with regards to analytics being used in each direction. “An installer might have one direction being used to count people coming through a door, while another direction might notify how many people are in checkout line. A third direction could be monitoring unauthorized access to a restricted area. The possibilities are endless, and that fact that you can do all of this from a single vantage point is truly powerful,” he said.