Impactful Imaging: How the World is Being Changed by Camera Data and Object Storage
Last month, Cloudian and Axis, the market leader in network video, announced a partnership that will allow the data captured by Axis’ network cameras to be saved directly to Cloudian’s HyperStore via the internet for economical archiving. That means that even as data volumes increase, Axis customers can manage video data effectively and economically while also positioning themselves to deal with future demands for video and storage.
This is yet another example of how powerful imaging technology and scale-out storage are combining to change business, security and public life. Today, cameras count people at busy places, recognize faces for access, and monitor production processes. When you access a parking garage, your license plate is read and stored. If you drive on a Tokyo highway, cameras recognize your car and billboards project a targeted advertisement based on the type of car you drive. And if you drive certain models of automobile, your car itself is recording video as your drive.
Cameras are being used in a host of new and ingenious ways – not just to monitor people for security reasons but to create entirely new ways of serving customers and generating new revenue.
Automotive and security applications may be among the first applications of video that spring to mind, but farming is another example of an industry that is adapting camera imaging. Traditional farming relies on managing fields, based on regional conditions and historical data. Today, farmers have the ability to add sensors, robots, GPS, mapping tools and data-analytics software to customize the care that plants receive without increasing labour. Stationary or robot-mounted sensors and camera-equipped drones send images and data on individual plants to a computer, which looks for signs of potential problems. And AI/ML helps to find a proven cure for that problem, based on historical data. This allows the farmers to receive feedback in real time and take actions accordingly (deliver water, pesticide or fertilizer) to only the areas that need it. The technology also helps farmers decide when to plant and harvest crops.
But it is not only productivity and cost savings that count when it comes to cameras. The City of Montebello, California equipped 79 city buses with five IP cameras each. With over 8 million passengers traveling every year, the city has an enormous responsibility to ensure the safety of those being transported. To make sure that in an emergency situation the right response arrives quickly, the city combined an advanced mobile security system with Cloudian object storage.
Thanks to this new combination, the City of Montebello can simultaneously record all five bus-mounted cameras currently under testing with real-time metadata tagging (time, location, vehicle, etc.). They also improved upload reliability by allowing large clips to be broken up and the parts streamed concurrently, as opposed to consecutive streams which must be restarted in the event of an error. But most importantly, Montebello Bus Lines has real-time visibility to protect the millions of passengers who depend on its service. And it is able to find specific information quickly when an emergency appears.
With newer applications of video, and higher resolutions, comes a growth in the need for data storage which can become very expensive, very quickly with traditional storage systems. Conventional network cameras usually store captured images on media such as SD cards or on Network Attached Storage (NAS), but there is a limit to how much data these media can preserve and manage over time. The scale-out capabilities of object-storage and use of low-cost hard drives are just two more reasons why object storage works very well with camera data.
Object storage and cameras are made for each other. Using the right technology for video data saves money, increases efficiency and lowers your ecological footprint.
To learn more about how Cloudian can help you manage your video storage needs, visit our Media and Entertainment page.