Person of Interest - the workings of Video Analytics

Up to now, we have discussed quite a few interesting applications and points on visual analytics. But we have received some feedback asking to explain how it works. So here goes!

The basis of visual analytics, a practice of using computers to identify things or people of interest without an operator or a person having to view the video, are mathematical algorithms that monitor, analyze and manage big volumes of video. This means that video inputs are digitally analyzed and transformed into data that help people take decisions. It can be real time to help alert to specific incidents that could happen, such as an illegal suspect fleeing the country, and so on, or they can be post-event, looking incidents that have already occurred, for example a bombing or a fire in a store.

VA can happen in the centre, for example a central monitoring station, at the "edge", built into cameras which is ideal to locate live happenings, or as a combination of both. The optimal place to locate post-event analytics is on a central server as it is possible to search a large amount of recorded video for events, however this requires network capacity and processing power. But the main point on VA is that it works on motion detection and pattern recognition.

Motion Detection is basically examining each pixel in a given frame to detect the slightest movement. Pattern Recognition, on the other hand, recognizes specific patterns within a frame. These patterns or objects can be programmed and i.e, should a change happen or an object go missing the software immediately recognizes and sounds an alert.

The most common used types of video analytics used is violation of perimeters and recognition of license plates. Not only can this be used in surveillance, but in retail segment market analysis, to measure the number of people that pass in a given time (footfall), gender counting, shelf space effectiveness, and so on.

A fun and different way to see a little bit of VA in action, is watching a series called Person of Interest. It's just a TV show... but is it really?

Sources:
http://www.mistralsolutions.com/hs-downloads/tech-briefs/aug09-article-1.html
http://www.addic7ed.com/serie/Person_of_Interest/2/22/God_Mode
http://alexandra135.deviantart.com/art/Person-of-Interest-349555095

Visual Analytics aid Supply Chain Management (SCM)

The changing marvels we see in today’s globalized world are brought about by major social and economic change agents like the web 2.0, the financial platforms utilizing Swift technology, and an increasing integration of world economies through outsourcing practices, major logistics industry overhauls and the barriers of language being minimized. Behind the scenes of this new world is a management discipline that continues to play a vital role in the success, growth, and versatility of a firm in the global economy. The field of supply chain management continues to increase in complexity as capabilities are shipped around the world and developed in more niche geographical locations like manufacturing personal computer chips in China, etc. 

Depending on the industry, supply chain management can be very complex. For example, industries like aerospace, automobile manufacturing, and medical device manufacturers can have numerous tiers of suppliers all over the world that are susceptible to risks including weather changes, government stability/regulation, and economic factors like shortages of key resources. Supply chain managers are beginning to find immense value in the use of Visual Analytics because it makes a complex discipline more visible, and thus makes it easier to analyze.

This is an exciting blend of practices and is being spearheaded by researchers at the Supply Chain Responsiveness SCRiP institute at Cranfield School of Management the UK. Last June, SCRiP hosted a talk showcasing the progressive practice of visual analytics in supply chain management using two case studies in the British American Tobacco Company and Shell’s lubricant division. To follow these developments you can access documents and research on the SCRiP website listed below.

http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/scrip

http://alumni.som.cranfield.ac.uk/public/Event.aspx?Id=740

 

Visual Analytics tells the Story Right !

In the United States, Florida, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice ("DJJ") is using visual analytics to present a clearer and more precise picture of children in the justice system and the effectiveness of the state’s innovative reform efforts. Isn't it amazing to see that government authorities are currently going for real innovative solutions!

The state’s Juvenile Justice Information System is one of the largest juvenile databases in the country, generating millions of lines of data about juvenile arrests, recidivism and reform outcomes.

To provide this information to stakeholders, DJJ had published annual, lengthy reports or posted  Microsoft Excel files online.  Nonetheless, department officials could not correct errors or add information to the reports once they were published, prompting the search for an interactive presentation tool that was both easy to update and learn.

Additionally, the department wanted a tool to help tell its juvenile justice reform story with data visualizations that would illustrate how giving a “civil citation” to first offenders had reduced recidivism in areas where it was actively encouraged.

Visual Analytics: Integrating with every thread of our life !!

In today's world, all the application areas where large information spaces have to be processed and analyzed, visual analytics can play a pivotal role.

In line with this utility of visual analytics, major fields/sectors that are either using visual analytics  or are candidates for using it for their advantage include:
physics, astronomy, climate control, catastrophe and emergency management, terrorism informatics, border protection, investigation support, computer tomography in field of medicine, ultrasound imaging, sequencing of DNA and other biological data, human genome study, study of protein cells, combinatorial chemistry with tens of millions of compounds, financial data analysis, stock exchange trades analysis, credit card usage analysis, monitoring efficiency of prison systems, traffic light systems, airport traffic control; analysis of player data, games history, sports team analysis and much more.

The point here is that Visual Analytics is no longer constrained to being that "trendy new thing" out there for geeks to try; It is a integrating itself in every sphere of life as we know it - from DNA research to finance sector to climate control to sports to social media to crime control and monitoring. You think of a field/sector and I am sure you will find a news about how this field is getting benefited by visual analytics.

Just recently, TCS, a major technology company announced how it is using visual analytics and big data analysis to predict the future of IT industry and the trends of future.

And what do this integration of visual analytics with various aspects of our life mean? Well, to start with technological implications, remember the buzzword of 'High Performance Computing' that I had mentioned in one of my previous posts? Well, for starters, this would not be just the cool thing which is deployed only by major investment banks; it will be a necessity for every sector.

And to generalize, It is a mathematical fact that more samples you process for getting your regression model, the lower is the error value associated and no matter what sector you belong to, you have to admit that there is so much data now available to be processed and analyzed. In today's world, this 'big data' goes hand-in-hand with the various visual analytics tools, when it comes to using this data and putting it for use. I mean, along with all the other advantages that this association of visual analytics and the large volume of data will bring to your sector, you won't mind that 'added' accuracy in predictions of trends you care about most, would you? :-)

Visual analytics and sports ; " Taking the game to new levels"

http://www.sloansportsconference.com/?p=9994

Visual analytics are being used in applications to improve professional players's performance when playing their respective sports.
Coaches use the Data collected by the supporting staff and the assistant coaches in order to guide players on what optimal decisions to take and when exactly. These conclusions are based on studying trends that are repeated by opponent teams. Teams who use these tools to study trends and prepare accordingly have managed to merge technology and sports in a very creative way, and most importantly help improve player performance.

A Small Detour into Web Analytics :-)

Well, I know that the topic of this blog is Visual Analytics; But when I saw our blog crossing a viewership of one thousand, it's first thousand, I could not resist sharing some of the interesting Web Analytics Stats about how it has done so far, with our viewers. So, from the home page of our blog which hosts a counter of views, all the way until division of viewers as per the region, and other web analytics, we are herby posting it all.

Life is all about finding joy in little things that take place around us everyday. Do Join us in this celebration of a ton and enjoy reading posts on our blog, the ones posted earlier and the ones coming in near future!!

SAS is up to the Challenge!

More and more organizations are finding value in big data with SAS Visual Analytics. Global customers and industry watchers quickly recognized the advanced graphic solution's self-service data visualization as the key to yielding valuable insight.

SAS Visual Analytics combines industry-leading analytics with unique in-memory architecture, intuitive data exploration, and the option to deliver information to a wide variety of platforms, - including iPad and Android tablets.

I dare to say that so far SAS offers the only in-memory engine designed specifically for business visualization of big data on general-purpose, nonproprietary hardware.

SAS Visual Analytics, which runs on commodity hardware or database appliances from EMC Greenplum and Teradata, supports increasing demands for fast answers from big data.

Even, Employees with limited or no previous experience or skills in analytics can understand and benefit from the use of Visual Analytics, as all of the sophisticated, complex data is seamlessly integrated with a variety of user-friendly features such as on-the-fly predictions and scenarios, autocharting, 'what does it mean' pop-ups, and drag-and-drop capabilities.

Analytical Art

The human brain is limited in the ability to comprehend vastly large and complex truths. For example, it is impossible for the human brain to be able to visualize the size of our galaxy which is only a tiny portion of our universe. The number of zero's you have to multiply the size of the earth by attests to this fact. You can't think in these kinds of quantities or sizes. Its just not biologically wired into our little brains. Sizing down to compare the Earth to the size of Jupiter is a bit more feasible. If you were to compare the two you would be astonished, you can fit 1,321 Earths into Jupiter. Wow! When you see the visual of this you get the picture! And this is the point! Visual information can have profound effects on us, it can trigger emotions, feelings, and amazement. For the fun of visual analytics I just wanted to highlight a great source for presenting information in an artistic way. See the Link below for "Information is Beautiful."

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/popular/


Also watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo4u4JJAPGk

seconds 2:20-2:46

Latest Visual Analytics deal!

Yesterday the 2nd of Sep 2013,  The German firm Software AG, which provides big data, integration and business process technologies, has announced the acquisition of US-based real-time visual analytics provider JackBe Corporation, and says it will shortly launch a new platform making use of JackBe’s technology.

AG is expected to launch the new web Methods Intelligent Business Operations Platform (IBO) for early access customers in Q4 2013. The platform will use JackBe’s mashup, analytic and visualization capabilities and according to AG, ‘will allow a comprehensive 360-degree view of operational processes by combining live, historical and transactional data with machine-to-machine (Industrial Internet) communications into real-time visualizations’. It also includes tools to put changes based on this intelligence rapidly into action, including dynamic and automated business processes.

Synchronizing Visual Analytics and Social Media

If you ever once uttered the words “It’s a small world!” it was likely in the context of realizing you were somehow connected to a random stranger through a random sphere of your life. It could have been a past job, an old class mate, or distant relative. This phenomenon is popularly recognized as the 6 degrees of separation. Essentially it is the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away from any other person in the world. How much closer do you think people are now with social media? It is a curiosity. Perhaps it is more fun to not know and have those connections surprise you from time to time.

With the help of Visual Analytics and Social Media we can explore all kinds of inter connections beyond the 6 degrees that cross  many various aspects of life, not just who we might bump into. The interdisciplinary approach is superior in solving complex issues. For example, the uploaded YouTube video contains an example of the capabilities to gather information from micro blog texts from various languages about symptoms of illnesses and visualize these over a geographical spread in time. With this information further analysis can be conducted utilizing keywords from micro blog accounts that people mindlessly publish. The end results and conclusion may surprise you! It is important to note that much of the information individuals publish on micro blogs like twitter and Facebook can be used by analysts to visualize trends in time and geographic space.