Image Analytics will be Mainstream

Image analytics has exploded over the course of the past couple of years. The "Big Idea" that is grabbing all the headlines is self-driving cars. You've probably seen articles about Google's self-driving cars or Tesla's "auto-pilot" feature (if not, check out this video). As fascinating and futuristic as self-driving cars sound, the intelligent application of computer vision technology is taking off in kinds of fields and making its way into all kinds of practical business use-cases. Here are a few notable ones that have been mentioned in the tech media over the past year:

• Artificial Intelligence will help you get snacks faster
• Security camera uses AI to tell humans from animals or cars
• Intel Branches Out To Smart Security Cameras
• A Look At How Intel Is About To Dominate The Drone Market

The use of IoT devices is continuing to grow, and camera-based devices are a huge part of that. Contextant's goal is to make this technology accessible and assist companies in providing pragmatic application of these technologies. This is what we mean by Applied Image Analytics. The idea behind Contextant's ViznTrac is make this exciting technology easily accessible to anyone.  With use-cases ranging from home-security using standard IP cameras to a broad range of industrial uses cases such as:

• Warehouse Floor Layout Optimization
• Counting people in a checkout line at a store
• Count people entering and exiting a location
• Use facial recognition to implement better security or kick off automation tasks
• Use either bar-code or OCR to read labels on packages moving in a warehouse.
• Home security and smart-home automation

It can be bewildering trying to keep up with all the advancements that have taken place recently in this area. What we are seeing is the result of the maturing of image processing technologies and robust machine learning platforms such as Google's TensorFlow coming together to make these technologies easier to use and more accessible to individuals and companies than ever before. The result is the explosion of use-cases across industrial verticals for companies of all sizes.

Our ViznTrac platform is currently in beta, with a planned Kickstarter coming in September.  With everything that has happened in this space just over the course of 2016 and thus far in 2017, it's exciting to think of everything that will happen over the next year. We believe that ViznTrac will allow both individuals and companies to more easily take advantage of this technology using hardware (such as IP cameras) that they already have.

If you're intrigued about applied image analytics and are curious about how ViznTrac could help you or your business, please drop us a line and somebody will contact you and answer any questions you have.