The Focus Is Sharp In The City
When we look at the impact of next generation technology on modern living, it can often be hard to figure out what’s really going to deliver value and what’s not. Exhibit A is the Internet of Things (IoT), which has been on the cusp of being the Next Big Thing to transform urban security for ages but it has somehow managed to still be “just around the corner.”
Back in the eighties, we were all talking about smart parking meters and traffic lights, and today we’re...well, we’re still talking about smart parking meters and traffic lights. So what role will the IoT actually play in the modern smart city?
The Camera Angle
There’s been plenty of hype about networked refrigerators and smart speakers but one area where IoT is 100% legit right now is security. Public cameras have been a fixture for decades (long predating the Internet), and many cities have developed sophisticated systems to connect them together, delivering a powerful security solution.
With the introduction of Apple’s FaceID on their latest iPhone X, more people have become familiar with the power of face authentication technology and 3D cameras. However, it has been around for a while now, and we will soon see it used increasingly for surveillance and access control in city settings.
Using images from video cameras for face recognition is much more complicated that just using still images because they are impacted by numerous factors including environmental conditions, camera location, lighting and subject size and behavior. But the rapid increase in powerful AI algorithms and tiny 3D cameras are all combining to deliver insights and connections never before possible. And this can all work in any light, from high noon in the park to midnight on the darkest corner.
Even more exciting and impactful is the current ability to leverage AI-based behavioral biometrics in order to improve security. For example, today’s tools could identify the same person loitering at an airport twice a day for the past four days at a site where a terror cell is known to be operating. This is actionable intelligence that will be helpful to the authorities.
So, face recognition is one tech tool that exists today that can help improve urban security while you are waiting for the invention of the Internet-enabled microwave.
(image: Paweł Zdziarski CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ )