Driving Intelligent Campus Transformation with Video Content Analysis
Leveraging video data for optimized operations
- By Stephanie Weagle
- August 01, 2019
Today, educational institutions
are much more than centers of
learning and research: University
campuses manage extensive
operations from commercial
and business groups to healthcare,
dormitory and sports facilities, and law
enforcement and traffic control units. With a
broad set of stakeholders and functions, the
business, operational and security challenges
and responsibilities of universities are wideranging,
to say the least.
One leading university, based in the United
States, has embraced technology as a way
of addressing its extensive needs. Integrating
diverse enterprise solutions, the university
strives to select technologies that are broadly
applicable for multiple campus functions.
Like most campuses, one type of infrastructure
leveraged by this university is video surveillance,
which enables increased public
safety and security on the 2,000-acre campus.
With sprawling grounds and over 900
buildings, the campus relies on a 3,000-camera
video surveillance installation to oversee
its property and the 65,000 people who traverse
it every day—including 15,000 oncampus
residents.
According to this organization’s campus
technology expert, the university is always
looking for ways to operationalize its systems.
Utilizing the Crime Triangle methodology
of evaluating offender abilities, crime
opportunities and desire for goods and materials,
as well as extensive video surveillance
infrastructure, the university sought to maximize
its investments and enable operators to
actively query information and efficiently
derive intelligence from video. Since integrating
a video content analytics platform in
2017—and gradually expanding its implementation
ever since—the university is
extracting more data and value from its
video resources.
Driving Intelligence-based Decision Making
The university integrated a content analytics
platform in order to leverage video data to
provide operational intelligence to various
divisions across campus. For instance, while
the campus was considering an extensive
construction project, video analytics were
used to provide insight into vehicular and
human navigation trends. Visualizing video
content into customizable data dashboards,
the university was able to share critical business
intelligence across campus groups to
inform the planning of future infrastructure,
including sidewalks and roads.
“We weren’t prepared for the amount of
contextual information the solution could
provide—we didn’t realize how much detail
we would be able to share with the other
campus management groups,” an official at
the university said. “The traffic details alone
have been key for driving our major campus
construction project.”
Whereas the university would otherwise
have had to hire consultants to share expert
opinions about optimal planning, the campus
can derive actual quantifiable intelligence
about how its facilities and roads are used and
make decisions based on actionable intelligence—
available with the push of a button.
Another group benefitting from video
intelligence is the campus transportation and
parking services group. From information
about intersections of interest and vehicle
types, to daily traffic patterns and peaks, traffic
violations and more, this critical data helps
the group understand activity, identify problem
hotspots and plan for the expected and
unexpected. For instance, by using video analytics
to identify where drivers and pedestrians
are ignoring traffic lights, the campus can
determine how to respond. Access to this
information enables the planners to prioritize
next steps, whether the appropriate response
is to increase enforcement efforts or to update
existing traffic infrastructure.
The solution empowers the university to
be efficient and dynamic, developing plans of
action based on concrete information, such
as live traffic and intersection data, that can
be shared with management teams and decision
makers. Between commuting students,
faculty and visitors, over 30,000 vehicles
enter the campus every day. Video analysis
enables the university to effectively monitor
traffic, visitors, and active construction projects,
as their operations scale.
Empowering Campus Law Enforcement
Beyond data visualizations and dashboards,
the campus’s security and law enforcement
use the platform to enhance situational
awareness and combat crime. Campus theft
investigations occupy much of the university
police force’s energies, and campus detectives
often leverage the ability to make video
searchable. What would normally take several
days can be investigated in an hour or
two with deep learning-driven technology.
Video can be filtered based on known suspect
features or, where there is little to no
information about the perpetrator, hours of
video can be reviewed in minutes to quickly
understand what took place and identify suspects—
enabling law enforcement to respond
much more quickly.
Supporting Diverse University Stakeholders
Understanding how indoor and outdoor
space is utilized—from libraries and student
centers to research and sports facilities and
beyond—monitoring and optimizing traffic
flows, maintaining and increasing safety and
security and deriving granular intelligence,
such as visitor demographics, the university
is successfully leveraging video content to
gain full insight into its everyday activity.
Striving to meet the extensive functions
and needs of different campus groups from
retail and food vendors to sports stadiums,
construction planning and execution committees,
and law enforcement bodies, the
university relies on their video content analytics
platform to serve its various stakeholders.
Through the use of the technology, the
university has been able to resolve critical
operational challenges and improve daily
management of its campus.
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2019 issue of Campus Security Today.