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Video synopsis technology

Today, video surveillance is used in thousands of locations worldwide for enhancing public safety, investigating and preventing security breaches, criminal activity and loss prevention. It also serves as an effective tool to improve employee and operational performance. Yet, with all the technological advances that have been made in video surveillance, viewing and analysis of recorded video surveillance footage is still a costly and time intensive task that often requires a large team.

The BriefCam product

BriefCam’s product is based on its propriety, patent pending Video Synopsis (VS) technology. Video Synopsis tracks and analyses moving objects, and converts video streams into a database of objects and activities. When a video summary is needed, all objects from the target period are collected and are shifted in time to create a much shorter synopsis video showing maximum activity. A synopsis video clip is generated in real-time, in which objects and activities that originally occurred in different times are displayed simultaneously.

The BriefCam system comprises a hardware unit that connects to a LAN consisting of cameras and DVR/NVR. The end user can access the BriefCam summary and index using a software client running on a PC. Using the BriefCam client, the end user can create and view video summaries, as well as index the original video data. The BriefCam server and client access the DVR/NVR just like any other client.

To install BriefCam Video Synopsis on your current network, simply connect the BriefCam unit to your existing network, and install the BriefCam client on your PC.

Work flow

Videos are processed in the BriefCam server. The BriefCam client provides a simple and intuitive interface enabling end users to select a specific camera, and to specify a desired time range. The summarised video clip is then generated according to the requested specifications without the need for additional processing. During the review of the video clip, the original video footage of a specific event can be accessed at any time. Users can control object density and video speed for tracing events and evidence.

Technology

BriefCam’s Video Synopsis technology, licensed from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, combines a visual summary of stored video together with an indexing mechanism. Video Synopsis supports substantial shortening of surveillance video through the simultaneous display of events that occurred at different times.

The process begins by detecting and tracking objects of interest. Each object is represented as a ‘tube’ in ‘space-time’ of all video frames. Objects are detected and stored in a database in approximately real time.

Following a request to summarise a time period, all objects from the desired time are extracted from the database, and are shifted in time to create a much shorter summary video containing maximum activity. Real-time propriety rendering is used to generate the summary video after object re-timing.

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