Merging Control Rooms With Artificial Intelligence: The Future Of Oversight

Angela Nolan

By Angela Nolan

At the center of an enterprise organization’s security operation is a central location where critical decisions about the safety and security of employees, visitors and customers are made: the control room. The control room is often made up of numerous pieces of technology that deliver overall functionality and efficiency, as well as provide a common operational picture, mitigate threats, and promote enhanced communication during an incident.

Today’s security systems are collecting data at exorbitant rates, continuously gathering information from hundreds —if not thousands— of sensors and funneling that information into a control room for analysis and response. Operators are tasked with sifting through the footage and material, working around the clock to recognize potential threats or anomalies. But there just aren’t enough human eyes available for organizations to dedicate to this overwhelming responsibility; one that may seem impossible to fully maintain.

Enter artificial intelligence (AI).
Powered by computer vision and machine learning, solutions that employ AI technology can highlight the 1 to 2 percent of video surveillance events that actually need attention. And this can be achieved automatically. AI enables the ability of software to take incoming data, analyze it and learn behaviors, making the detection and communication of anomalies easier and responsiveness more comprehensive. Tools that automate situational awareness and integrate platforms can provide operators with more timely and accurate information upon which they can base their decisions.

These intelligent solutions can learn the difference between normal movement patterns and abnormal exception events in real time. This then saves operators time and effort by only displaying the relevant video data that requires processing for increased situational awareness.

This type of technology is especially critical in command centers that manage a large number of video surveillance cameras at one time — a common issue that developed from an attempt to adjust to an evolving threat landscape. As risks have grown and become more severe over the years, the traditional reaction to enhance security was to add more cameras. But at some point, this starts to decrease efficiencies. Instead of increasing camera counts to combat threats, with limited resources to truly watch feeds coming in from each and every one, now AI software exists to distinguish between normal, everyday use and potential threats within a facility.

The key is to apply a non-rules-based approach, where the solution isn’t trained or told to look for any particular occurrence. Instead, by creating a statistical model of where pixels are at every moment in time, the technology can proactively identify an unusual movement or object and alert to a potential hazard.

This benefits operators in a control room in a number of ways. They can now facilitate the next level of action if necessary based on the initial trigger from the AI software. For example, facial recognition, license plate recognition or access control systems can be prompted to investigate the anomaly further and prompt operators to decide whether to send an armed officer to investigate or automatically trigger a more elevated response from local police/fire stations.

As command centers become commonplace within enterprise organizations, and the stream of data incoming becomes massive, AI software is poised to create a more streamlined approach to response. As a result, these organizations will be able to better build more situational awareness and react more quickly and efficiently across the enterprise.

About The Author
Angela Nolan serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Vistacom, a leading provider of audiovisual and communications solutions. Angela joined Vistacom 33 years ago and throughout her time has overseen a number of various functions, including accounting, operations, and marketing. During her tenure, the company grew from 12 people to more than 75 as Angela helped refocus the company on providing the most value to its clients through its products and services, which encompass full design, engineering, integration programming, service and maintenance, and control room design. Anglea also serves on the Professional Systems Network International (PSNI) Global Alliance Board of Directors as the organization’s secretary/treasurer.

Source: vistacominc.com
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