Video surveillance, a new asset for urban and mobility strategies
A simple surveillance tool for public safety purposes, intelligent video surveillance is moving into other sectors and revealing its range of potential by collecting relevant data.
Is the next decade the decade of intelligent video surveillance? The emancipation and growing diversification of this technology suggests that this is the case. Beyond the simple surveillance of citizens for public security purposes, intelligent video surveillance invests in other sectors and reveals its range of potentialities. This is particularly true in terms of urban planning (management of built-up areas, smart cities) or mobility. Indeed, video surveillance is not just a means of surveillance, but a tool capable of collecting relevant data.
In Switzerland, the Federal Roads Office (FEDRO), for example, has a video surveillance system for motorways which allows incidents to be detected and number plates to be read to facilitate the work of the police in the event of an accident. The system, which operates on a private network, is totally isolated from the Internet. A first security layer to protect the data collected. Elsewhere, but in the same field, the engineering school of Fribourg conducts a video surveillance project with the cities of Fribourg and Bulle.
The purpose of the cameras is to record data related to traffic flows. This information will allow engineers, as well as public policy, to plan the booming urban development of the Fribourg and Bulloise agglomeration. In the interest of mobility fluidity, several Swiss cities are using video surveillance to implement intelligent parking solutions.
However, the latest generations of this technology offer services that go beyond security. A field that is just waiting to develop.In Switzerland, the leading players in this sector are still rare. But they do exist.One example is the insolent growth of Morphean SA. Based in Fribourg, this Softcom spin-off specialises in intelligent video surveillance in Switzerland and abroad.She has developed self-learning software based on artificial intelligence.It is able to detect abnormal movements through a camera. The platform, hosted in the cloud, is accessible from a computer or mobile phone.
Nevertheless, the growth of the video surveillance market raises a number of questions about the use of data and the protection of privacy.
Ethical principles that are at the heart of the business model and the concerns of Morphean SA since the data collected are anonymized.
But these questions remain central to the issue of digital confidence.
They can only be resolved by economic actors.
Only a multi-party public debate (economy, politics, justice, civil society) will make it possible to establish ethical principles for the proper development of this technology which has much to offer us.
