The wide use of artificial intelligence-based computer vision technology in the urban environment can make the city life safer, more environmentally friendly — and even more humane.
Since the most part of humanity has moved to cities, the question of the rational life arrangement of the city space becomes more and more relevant. The widespread introduction of the ‘smart city” manifested the megatrend — to a certain degree, it involved modern megacities — from New York, Tokyo and Singapore to Shanghai, Delhi and Moscow. In actual fact, a ‘smart city’ is generally a human-oriented, comfortable, secure and environmentally friendly environment based on modern energy, transport and informatics solutions. This also includes security and video surveillance systems built on neural networks and artificial intelligence.
Russia is among the leading countries in terms of introducing these technologies into the everyday urban life. The 2018 FIFA World Cup stands among the clearest manifestations. During the championship, among other, the computer vision technologies developed by NtechLab, were widely tested and demonstrated excellent results. The deployed system connected to more than 500 city surveillance cameras allowed to detain more than 100 individuals during the championship, included in offender databases. In addition, they helped to get back the Budweiser sponsorship cup stolen during one of the matches.
This is just one particular use case with regards to video analytics systems. Even today, NtechLab’s algorithms allow detecting dozens of criminals monthly at transport facilities in a Latin American capital; they help to regulate people streams and avoid crowds at train stations in India; to build a smart and secure 21st century digital city in one of the largest Gulf countries. Computer vision from NtechLab ensures anti-theft protection in Russia’s largest retail stores, more than 30,000 monthly pre-trip inspections with instant authentication, and secure online banking.
In actual fact, the capabilities offered by computer vision algorithms go beyond all this. Based on experience, we can say that on the whole it makes the city safer, more comfortable and environmentally friendly. A real-life task would be adapting thousands of cameras in an urban metropolis to notify the ambulance when someone falls down on the street or on an attack of an illness (a stroke, for instance). Along with vehicle traffic management, car and public transport recognition opens wide prospects for creating an infrastructure that would be oriented on the real needs of citizens.
In the ‘smart city’ of the future, you will not have to wait for a bus for a long time and then push inside, as depersonalized passenger data routes and time interval will make the planning more accurate. The city of the future is a queue-less and crowdless one. From the perspective of coronavirus pandemic, this becomes especially relevant.
When introduced, such systems will allow efficient resolution of another acute issue in modern megalopolises — the garbage and its timely removal. Each garbage removal entails costs, and the containers by the condominiums are filled unevenly. For maximum efficiency, the vehicle routes need to be planned to avoid ‘empty’ points along the way. Standard measures such as urban video surveillance solve this problem only partially. However, manual checks of images from thousands of cameras and routing development requires extra resources. Smart video analytics can assist by analyzing both the fill level of the dumpsters and the quality of discharge works, including third party contractors. The best routes for garbage trucks can be generated automatically based on data from cameras, cutting fuel costs and increasing staff efficiency.
We have to admit that most people still feel distrust with regards to artificial intelligence. Stereotypical mind shaped largely by the media and the hyped dystopias – creates a picture of some robotic mind empowered to make independent decisions, which determines what and who should do. In practice, artificial intelligence is nothing more than a human decision support system. As in security or any other industry, the system only hints what to focus on specially, leaving the final decision still with the human. The robot can eliminate routine operations and processes that can be difficult to control. So, the objective is to help, and not to control and supervise.
On the whole, as advocates of artificial intelligence, we can declare with confidence that within the nearest future robots will be capable of taking on the operations the humans simply cannot cope with due to natural limitations. They will watch through huge bulks of video, analyze gigabytes of data, instantly react to dangerous situations such as a fight, a heart attack, child abuse. Algorithms will assist in locating the people who are lost and cannot help themselves. No matter how paradoxical it may sound, computer vision will make the city of the future more human.
In turn, NtechLab intends to develop and actively promote such technological solutions — not in Russia alone, but all over the world. Today the company has more than 30 large clients in around 15 countries in various regions, including the CIS, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Southeast Asia. NtechLab products are applied in public and corporate security, retail, finance, entertainment and hospitality industries. Every year, the company is awarded top ranks in international computer vision competitions: the latest achievements include prizes in international competitions for recognition of actions and the so-called ‘deepfakes’, or fake faces, by video.
The company continuously working on improving the accuracy and speed of algorithms, expanding the domains where computer vision may serve as a human aid. Last year, when the world face the coronavirus pandemic, we presented our dedicated anti-covid solution. It helps to prevent the crowds in public places, ensure that people keep social distance and wear masks. The solution was in great demand both in the regions of Russia and abroad.
We continue our active development. Last autumn, NtechLab raised over 1 billion rubles from the international consortium of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and some leading sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East. This was not only recognition of the authority of NtechLab and high quality of its solutions, but also a solid foundation for further technological expansion for the benefit of people and the mankind – in cities and beyond.