We are at the dawn of smart cities and in this post, we are going to explore what they are and how security cameras lie at the heart of the development and a strong CCTV Security system for smart city surveillance .
The ultimate testimony to humankind’s growth lies in its collective evolution. From being hunter gatherers, we’ve reached so far in our evolutionary history thanks to our collective endurance, adaptation to newer environments and adoption of survival strategies.
Right now, we are at one of the most interesting phases in human evolution because we are stepping into a new era called the information age. Considering the fact that the tools we’ve deployed have always been our corresponding age, the primary tool taking us to the doorsteps of the next lap of evolution is information and its allied offspring.
Today, we have automated most of our tasks. What started in the industrial revolution has taken many forms and shapes and has contributed to our elevated lifestyle and experiences. From what we call regular cities or towns, we are developing advanced environments and living spaces with machines and computer intelligence at the fulcrum. We are learning to harness the potential of machines to our advantage and make them take charge of redundant and some of the crucial aspects and processes of our lives.
Let’s get started.
Smart cities are anything but conventional. They are ambitious and futuristic in equal parts. If you’ve been believing smart cities exist only on papers as concepts, understand that smart cities are in their development stages as you read.
In simple terms, smart cities are more immersive and lively counterparts of their predecessors. They are powered by IoT, cellular, WiFi and edge computing devices and peripherals that together work to foster an environment that features automation, sophisticated lifestyles, advanced analytics and computing and more.
Almost every single touchpoint in the form of equipment, devices, networks, operational systems and more is fitted with sensors and embedded systems so the devices can process data and share visualized information to users in the form of insights for optimization.
From complex infrastructures such as power grids and water utility systems to those as simple as home automation systems and traffic management modules, every single aspect in a smart city is tech-driven for sophisticated operations. For instance, utility units installed in houses would be automated to autonomously share energy consumption details of individuals and their corresponding prices. Currently, there is no way an individual could know how much energy they have consumed individually through breakdown of consumption levels by the devices or equipment they own at home.
With smart power systems, however, they could know how much energy their television or computer has consumed on a daily basis, how much they could have saved with moderated usage, where they stand with respect to the energy consumption levels in their neighborhood and more. Such precise details about usage empowers individuals to take responsibility for their consumption and take adequate steps to minimize it. A similar implementation or approach is applied to all other aspects of lifestyle.
Smart cities are defined by their abilities to make real-time decisions. Unlike conventional practices, where decisions on anything take a couple of days, machines are vested with the power to make instant and autonomous decisions on a variety of things. To do this, they need to be able to see and view things for precision processing of data.
This is exactly where surveillance systems come into the picture. A CCTV security camera arrives as the vision of a smart city environment, offering systems the right information in real time to trigger responses and measures. Modern surveillance systems are passive in the fact that they can only offer information on what has already happened for investigative purposes.
However, equip them with sensors and edge devices and you will have solutions that can perform advanced tasks like video analytics, prescriptive maintenance, predicting outcomes, threat mitigation and more.
If this sounds too complex for comprehension, here’s a detailed breakdown of how security cameras would help in optimizing the safety and functionality of smart cities.
Video surveillance systems powered by technologies like artificial intelligence, facial recognition, machine learning and more could be used by law enforcement agencies to fight crimes in a myriad of ways.
By implementing intensive surveillance units in crucial public places, these CCTV camera could be used to detect fugitives, crime suspects, drug and human traffickers and other antisocial elements and send out notifications or alarms to law enforcement officers in vicinity to stay alert. A real-world example is the way Detroit managed to reduce its crime rate by 50% thanks to smart cameras and surveillance systems.
They can also be used to track stolen vehicles in real time and help police officers to hunt them down seamlessly. Besides these, they can also be used to strengthen disaster recovery measures through automatic assessment of water-logged areas, predict earthquakes and have incident responses ready.
A city can become safer and more inhabitable when people who break laws are punished immediately. In smart cities, this becomes simple as surveillance cameras could instantly penalize law breakers. From vehicles that skip traffic signals or pickpockets in action in crowded places, dynamic CCTV cameras with sensors and analytics software can help alert police officers to respond to such instances or automatically penalize individuals by tracking down their social security numbers. China already has a surveillance system that shames people in real time for breaking pedestrian laws.
A smart city involves evolution in all aspects. Similar to how airplanes have black boxes, vehicles would feature smart cameras that perpetually record events. In case of accidents, the footage from these cameras would be used as evidence for faster and automatic processing of insurance claims. This eliminates the time spent by individuals to apply for their insurance claims and skip all the necessary paperwork.
This wouldn’t have been an aspect we would be discussing if we hadn’t witnessed the devastating effects of Covid-19. Due to the outbreak of the global pandemic, we could leverage the potential of smart surveillance systems to tackle the spread of contagious diseases as well.
With advanced CCTV camera units, we could detect people without masks and penalize them instantly. We could also equip thermal scanners and instantly isolate individuals with symptoms of fever and cold. Massive implementations of this in public areas like airports, malls, places of interests and more could help mitigate the spread of viral diseases. With proper data analytics, we could also track down if individuals are vaccinated or not.
Apart from these, the role of a CCTV security camera in a smart city environment could be used to optimize safety in school and college premises, have customized use cases in hospitals and healthcare centers and more.
The potential of smart surveillance systems is limitless and is restricted by our collective creativity and intelligence to use them for diverse purposes. If you have a unique perspective or implementation in mind, you should get in touch with us to fetch an ideal security solution for your idea and help protect your premises.
What do you think?
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