Ipsotek: Intelligent Video. Ipsotek has been developing Intelligent Video applications for over 15 years. Like many other providers, the emphasis has been on security and alerting operators to potential threats. While these applications will be further engineered, the real future of the technology is now slowly revealing itself.

The Control Room

I would like to start by saying that the familiar applications of Intelligent Video will always remain important applications, whether this is detecting suspicious loitering in sensitive areas or intrusion across a secured perimeter. Indeed a number of these detections are already becoming commoditised, and in a sense reaching a level of acceptance as an expected feature.

Traditional camera and DVR manufacturers have now progressed from motion detection to embedding simple analytics in their devices whether at the edge or in the server. This may be from using their own in-house developed algorithms or licensed algorithms from the distinct analytic providers that are emerging – such as Ipsotek.

These security applications will be further refined by the providers to identify more and more complex threats over time. More importantly however, is that a growing and real market for analytics products is rapidly emerging in non security applications, within some surprising areas.

The Casino

The casino environment would probably be considered fertile ground for security applications. Whilst this is the case, the more interesting possibilities from an analytics perspective are for business analysis tools. In January this year, Ipsotek launched its Casino Suite at The International Gaming Expo at Earls Court in London. One of the myths in the casino environment is that you cannot add instruments to the Roulette wheel as this may be seen by the players as something there to “rig” the outcome of the spin.

This is actually nonsense as most Roulette tables now come complete with Ethernet and other outputs that are used to transfer the result of each spin of the wheel to a display above the table. For some time these outputs have also been used to produce information for performance analysis.

Analytics takes performance analysis a stage further by introducing the possibility of predicting poor performance in real time in the context of the environment at that time and allowing immediate intervention. Analytics also introduces the opportunity to measure – and predict – the activity levels in a game of Black Jack – something which was previously impossible in the casino environment.

Ipsotek’s Casino Suite is specifically aimed at increasing productivity and casino revenue at Roulette and Black Jack tables. It collects video activity and event information from the gaming tables, typically using existing CCTV cameras. The information is then turned into data from which predictions on the likely activity level at tables is determined.

This is used to trigger performance-related alarms when activity is predicted to be outside specified levels, as well as being stored in a central database for trend analysis.

The system also has a unique drill down ability whereby the system’s customised front end can be used to instantly replay clips of events where performance is predicted to dip, for instant investigation and response. In a sense, the system makes the roll of the Pit Boss more objective and assists him/her in making decisions around opening additional tables (when activity is drifting above prescribed levels), and as providing an objective tool for identifying underperforming dealers during the games in play.

Casino Suite is patented and has already been shown to have a real impact on the behaviour of dealers (in a positive sense) and this has lead to an improvement in casino average win percentage. This impact has been so dramatic with initial installations indicating the payback of the system to be counted in weeks rather than months.

The Operator

Whilst all of the above is true for improving the objectiveness of commercial decisions in a single casino, the bigger picture is for operators of a number of casinos to compare the statistics of Black Jack and Roulette performance across a group. Here, the information is being used to objectively identify areas needing attention within individual casinos to improve their commercial performance to acceptable levels.

The Future

As alluded to at the start of this article, analytics will have a growing and important place in the mainstream security sector. However, as a company, Ipsotek is finding that an increasing number of projects are arising in non security solutions. These already include the obvious applications such as traffic management, people counting, and various guises of event counting and classification.

What appears certain is that there are many commercial applications of video analytics technologies which are yet to be identified. This will be to the benefit of those companies developing analytics software, but ultimately, for equipment manufacturers and installers as more cameras find their way into these places on the back of the analytics.

Contact:

Andrew Eggington
Ipsotek Ltd., London, United Kingdom
Tel.: +44 (0) 208 971 8327
andrew.eggington@ipsotek.com
www.ipsotek.com