VIVOTEK: AI Increases business efficiency and intelligence for retailers and transit operators

Artificial intelligence (AI), or specifically machine learning, has helped video analytics become more reliable, which increases business efficiency and intelligence in multiple vertical markets. When it comes to using AI for actual markets, some main issues have to be dealt with, such as how to meet end user’s demands in different real-environment scenarios. The applications of AI are very fragmented and customized which push the solution providers to stay focused on what they are really good at.
 
VIVOTEK, the video-centric solution provider, particularly focuses on retail and transportation sectors to grow most of their solutions. Shengfu, Director of Product Management at VIVOTEK, said: “Our focus of using AI is to identify people and vehicles and detect if there are any abnormal behaviors. Therefore, besides the general security purpose, we pay more attention to increase the business efficiency and intelligence for our end users.”
 

Acquires business intelligence in retail

 

William Ku, VP of Brand Business Division at VIVOTEK, said: “The location of retail stores has become more diverse right now. Some are also located in the train stations, big shopping malls, or even pop-up stores in different kinds of occasions. This also causes the challenges for us to provide the right solution for users. In addition, due to the popularity of big data analytics in the retail sectors, business intelligence of video has become more important than the past.”
 
VIVOTEK provides the industry’s smallest fisheye cameras for retail since retail outlets prefer small and covert cameras to make them less intrusive for their customers. In addition, a fisheye camera is able to get a panoramic view with one camera, which is very popular for our retail users. With one camera, a small retail shop is able to get a full panoramic view of the shop to reduce its shrinkage and for general security purposes.
 
When the fisheye camera is built with the advanced machine learning function, it can help track people who are loitering, people gathering in a certain area or a long queue forming at the checkout counter. Abnormal behavior can be detected in order to alert staff so they can be the first to know.
 

Reduces overall operational cost in transits

 
VIVOTEK’s video surveillance system is also widely used in different transits, such as trains and buses. When AI comes into play, the system can better assist users to well manage and understand their business, by providing analytic reports and figures.
 
Shengfu said, “Besides monitoring inside the vehicles or stations, we have helped the transit operators for many specific requests. We provide different technologies for them to understand more about their business and daily operations, such as people counting in each train to understand when the peak hour is, to match the tickets they have collected, or to detect any abnormal people gathering, and identify people who are in the wheel chairs; detect any unattended luggage or people in the final stops.” 
 
“For buses, we also do a lot of people counting for operators to understand their capacity each fleet. Our cameras also help to detect driver’s fatigue and ensure drivers take the normal bus routes. Overall, our solution helps them reduce the operational cost.”
 
Finally, ALPR/LPR is another technology used widely for parking in residential buildings, communities, shopping malls, traffic monitoring, and law enforcement and the technology can even be used to ascertain the amount of the carbon dioxide emissions from all the vehicles per day, according to Shengfu.
 

AI creates new opportunities

 
Because of AI, the video companies are able to expand to another new market. Echoing the above, to solve multiple demand for end users, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The solution provider, like VIVOTEK, is willing to cooperate with partners around the world to develop the best solution for end users.