Nio's products and Software
To capture surveillance video that can be used in identifying objects like persons or vehicles, and documenting their movements, object tracking is an essential functionality. If the video capture is done solely by one or more stationary cameras, then either the field-of-view of a camera, or feature detail of its video will limit the usefulness. Even for high resolution cameras the amount of usable detail in the area of interest will limit getting a clear picture of the situation. Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras with optical zoom enable close scrutiny, but with the non-trivial challenge of steering the camera direction and zooming in an appropriate amount, while constantly watching for other moving objects. To a limited degree a person can do this, but alertness and attention to the task can only be effectively maintained for a brief span of time. Automating this task requires extensive algorithm and software development in the field of advanced Video Analytics. Many systems offer simplified solutions, like framing a portion of the video image and moving the frame following an object. Few offered systems are capable of giving detailed images with accurate and smooth tracking at high speed. Nio Security, Inc. has capitalized on many man years of advanced research and development, and has delivered the high quality solution.
Nio has two world leading products within the security market: CloseView® and SteadyEye®.
Advanced Video Analytics software is the heart of Nio's technology
Advanced Video Analytics software is the heart of Nio's technology, and Nio’s core business is within the intelligent video surveillance market. Nio's initial products in this field were test launched in the market in 2003. To date, the products have achieved a positive response from commercial as well as military and government customers that require the best intelligent video surveillance capabilities to protect their critical infrastructure. Nio is considered the leader in automated PTZ camera control, implemented in the CloseView® appliance, Nio's flagship product. To strengthen its control of PTZ cameras, Nio started developing own PTZ cameras in partnership with large PTZ manufacturers. These PTZ cameras, Interceptor® and EyeMax™ are designed for optimal performance in combination with the CloseView® appliance. In EyeMax™ the CloseView® is integrated into one solid frame together with more than 2 reference cameras and a PTZ. This makes the installation and the calibration of the unit simpler.
What is Nio Intelligent Video Analytics?
Nio Intelligent video analytics is not only about drawing a frame around some moving pixels in an image and maybe zoom in to the already low resolution picture.
First of all, the image needs to be analyzed in order to sort out whether the moving pixels in fact are an object of interest. Is it a human/car or is it just a bouncing ball? Deciding which of the possible moving objects to focus on should be made from a set of easy altered parameters. If there are several moving objects of interest, then the analytics needs to decide which one to look at first based on the relevance of the object (according to the parameters).
Then, in order to get a positive identification of the object, you will need a high quality close-up. To make this work in under all conditions, you will need a Pan Tilt Zoom camera with a high quality optical zoom to close-up and follow the object and then, at high speed, move to get an ID shot of the next one.
CloseView® uses up to four fixed cameras to analyze the scene. These reference cameras are the eyes of CloseView® and they never get tired. CloseView® is the multi-tasking video guard with 4 eyes, always on watch, analyzing all the information from the reference cameras and moving the PTZ camera to all objects of interest. When recording is added, the image from the reference camera(s) will give the storybook, and the close-up images from the PTZ will provide you with the ID shots of the objects.
There are several auto tracking PTZ cameras on the market, but most of them have in common that they analyze only the image coming out of the PTZ itself and sticks to one target at the time. This way, while the camera is busy tracking one target, the real object of interest could be out of sight for the PTZ camera. With CloseView® you will have real-time multiple object tracking and ID shots.