June 18, 2007—In order to boost the effectiveness of retail loss prevention and to improve the in-store customer experience, Cisco submitted a proposal to standardize how computers describe surveillance video for image analysis to the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), a division of the National Retail Federation. A group of retailers asked Cisco to work with them to develop a consistent way to access video analytic metadata from various vendors.
Video surveillance has traditionally been used in retail for loss prevention. With the aid of computer processing and analysis of video, retailers can further enhance loss prevention efforts and better understand customer behaviors, as well as improve the customer experience.
A large number of video analytic software programs are available that identify specific behaviors and events captured on video, such as people counting, line queuing, packages left behind and people entering specific areas.
As a new technology, many of these programs use proprietary formats that limit interoperatibility and compatibility. The proposed standard for how and in what format video metadata is described by these analytics programs would enable greater interoperability among multiple vendor’s products, says Cisco. As a result, a retailer or third party would be able to more easily create and integrate several video analytic products into a customized solution.
For more information, see the Cisco Web site.
