Eventually, the pandemic will end. That day can’t come soon enough. Even after COVID-19 no longer pervades our lives, one thing is for sure. The crisis will transform how we live and do business for good. Companies are making these changes for everyone’s benefit. The most notable adjustment is the switch to touchless technology.
Remember Ebola caused a scare for a spell? Before COVID-19, there were SARS, avian flu, and other viruses that have jumped from animals to humans. Besides, many other contagious illnesses still thrive today including colds, flu, meningitis, and chickenpox. Touchless technology will help lower the chances of people getting these spreadable illnesses.
Contactless technologies will help cut the risk of contracting an infectious illness. Companies will benefit from efforts to implement touchless technologies. The less often employees become sick, the fewer sick days they will take. Decreasing absenteeism will speed up the return on investment (ROI).
Some jobs are more affected by absenteeism than others. Construction is an example. If workers don’t come to work, their absence may delay the project. Finding a last-minute replacement can be a challenge.
Commercial property and apartment property managers contend with a higher density of people in a limited space. Any opportunity to prevent people from touching anything will help minimize the spread of illnesses.
The good news is that companies can finally have it all: convenience and security while keeping health and safety concerns top of mind. These touchless technologies will make this possible.
Enhancing Video Surveillance with Artificial Intelligence
Video surveillance systems without any artificial intelligence simply show what the cameras see. If no human or artificial intelligence monitors the cameras, then people can commit crimes and cause damage and get away with it.
By the time anyone notices a theft or damage occurred, the guilty party is long gone. Still, someone will need to review hours and hours of the recordings to find out what happened. Most of the time, the video quality isn’t good enough to identify who did it.
In recent years, the use of artificial intelligence in business has exploded. Adding AI to video surveillance gives it the ability to do far more than a basic video surveillance system. Think of it as video surveillance on steroids.
No longer is video surveillance a passive security system that could only provide views of the property. This required people to constantly monitor the cameras to catch something suspicious.
The reality is that this is a tedious activity that can put anyone to sleep. Studies show that doing monotonous tasks cause a human’s attention span to fall after 20 minutes. Intelligence video analytics fills in that gap so video surveillance isn’t dependent on human monitoring alone.
Pairing artificial intelligence with video surveillance system turns it into a proactive tool with a brain. This means artificial intelligence can analyze what the cameras see. The camera isn’t just something that’s capturing what’s in view. Adding a heaping dose of Vitamin AI helps the camera watch for any one of the many scenarios that have been programmed into the system.
As soon as the video surveillance system recognizes a scenario, AI tells the system what to do next. If someone is on the property, then the system will notify the human monitoring operator on duty. When you team up AI and traditional video surveillance, it creates intelligent video analytics.
While traditional video surveillance security can help stop crime and prevent damage, intelligent video analytics provide a company with a security edge that video cameras can’t do on their own.
The Power of Video Surveillance with Artificial Intelligence
Video surveillance systems with intelligent video analytics scan video in real-time to look for potential problems that could be a security threat. The system learns what is normal, everyday activity so it can pick up on unusual behavior that a human may miss.
The way this happens is the system observes the activity in a monitored environment and recognizes humans and vehicles. A technology specialist provides feedback on the accuracy of different events, which improves the AI’s functionality. In other words, the human trains the system. The more feedback the system receives, the more accurate it becomes.
Combining AI with human intelligence significantly reduces false positives and mistakes while improving the chances of spotting problems. It can also be used to speed up searches. For instance, an analyst can do a search of the feeds by entering keywords such as “woman wearing purple ” or the make and model of a suspicious car.
Object counting is another powerful feature in intelligent video analytics. It can count cars or people. The Verge shares an example of this. Idaho built a dam and needed to ensure it complied with environmental regulations. To do this, they needed to count the number of fish getting over the top of the structure.
Having someone watch the fish and count will not work well. It’s easy to miss some fish or miscount. Remember, human attention spans don’t do well after 20 minutes of mundane activity. A more efficient way to count the fish is to use video surveillance with intelligent video analytics.
You can do the same thing to guarantee you don’t exceed the current capacity for the building. The system can count humans and then notify the operator when the building or parking lot is close to capacity. This is touchless technology that does not require putting someone to work in the building.
Intelligent video analytics in security systems also know when to ignore harmless things. It could be a stray dog or a shopping bag moving with the wind. It also recognizes when someone tries to sabotage the cameras. The system will alert a monitoring operator when it detects loitering or people approaching the property after hours when no one should be there.
Swapping Keys for a Touchless Access Control System
An access control system
allows you to control who has access to the building, parking lot, and secure areas with limited access. With an access control system, you will not need keys anymore. No one has to share keys.
How many times has someone with the keys run late due to unforeseen circumstances? In doing so, everyone who needs access to the commercial property can’t enter the building. Access control lets everyone control their own access. They will not have to depend on the person with the keys. It, too, uses touchless technology.
For commercial properties with multiple tenants and apartment buildings with many residents, property management will no longer have to worry about former tenants having the keys. They can add and remove access with a few clicks of the keyboard.
Checking the Health of Touchless Technology
Anytime a crime occurs, you want to have a guarantee the cameras did their jobs and captured it on video. You never want to experience the nightmare of the cameras being down when they need to be working. Even the highest-quality technology breaks. The hardware ages and it can cause it to malfunction.
How do you get the assurance you need that your cameras will never miss anything important? You can maintain peace of mind by running regular system health checks. Cars have an annual inspection. Healthcare recommends people have annual physical exams.
Car drivers check their gas or battery information regularly. Otherwise, they could find themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere out of gas or juice in their electric vehicle.
A system health check proactively verifies the system works correctly while optimizing performance and uptime. It removes the stress of worrying about whether the system works as expected.
A physical for a video surveillance system involves analyzing the network video recorder, cameras, hard drives, internet, and other technology. The “doctor” examines the system to find any wireless, power, and internet problems. Some video security providers can run system health checks remotely without stepping on the property where the cameras live. Repairs can often be done remotely.
Integrating Touchless Technologies
Combining all the touchless technology into an integrated security system
will help maximize your return on security investment (ROSI). It achieves this by unifying multiple security systems and technologies.
You can combine touchless technologies such as video surveillance with video analytics and an access control system. Together, they manage and control access around the property while keeping an eye out for suspicious scenarios.
An integrated security system helps limit contact. Instead of security guards (or having fewer of them on the property), video surveillance can monitor people entering and exiting the building and other access points. Monitoring operators watching the cameras work in another location, so they’re not on your property.
Touchless integrated security can help manage the delivery process. Remote video surveillance with intelligent video analytics can monitor deliveries.
The operator can use the access control system to allow the person to enter with the package. The person leaves the package in a designated place. An employee or tenant can safely pick up the package after the delivery person departs.
Learn More About Touchless Technology for Security
As you interview security vendors, you want to identify those who can create a custom integrated security solution based on your business needs. The right company will design one that has exactly what you require, so you don’t pay for more than you need.
How do you know what security solution you need? Requirements for security by industry and even within a single industry. To get a customized security solution that fits your requirements and budget, contact us.
