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| According to an IMS study the video content analysis market is set to grow across the security market |
The Video Content Analysis (VCA) market endured another difficult year in 2010. There were successes, with new VCA project wins in the transportation and critical infrastructure markets; and there were failures, with a number of analytics vendors choosing to focus on other product areas and the news that Vidient has gone out of business.
VCA vendors have continued to build strong partnerships with video management software providers and security systems integrators. However, it is clear that the VCA market is far from the potential predicted a few years back and many have found the last two years tough. So where is the new potential for VCA?
The answer to this question lies outside of the traditional security market. Visually intelligent devices is the name used to describe the use of video analytics in market such as automotive, defence, medical, consumer and digital signage. There is great long-term potential for analytics providers to expand beyond the constraints of the security industry.
In automotive, VCA can be used to alert when the vehicle leaves a lane and monitor the driver's posture to recognise drowsiness. In digital signage, video analytics can recognise certain personal characteristics to provide a more targeted advert. Analytics can also be used in medical applications to identify tumours and in the consumer market, it is set to revolutionise the way we access and view TV. While the use of video analytics is still in the early stages in each of these markets, the potential for VCA vendors is unquestionable and IMS Research predicts that 2011 will be the year that VCA looks beyond security.
