Video Surveillance Can Lead The Way

In a broad band of technologies, one technology has led the way or one technology leads the way and others make a beeline, has been the technology history. Two very distinct examples will make this thought amply clear. One is telecommunication revolution way back during Rajiv Gandhi days, which opened floodgates of lots of technologies, the ones we use today, were making their entry. Liberalization later, as they call it, rest is history. In Japan it was the steel industry, which became the lead sector, and then the automobile and it went on and on and on. Disruption has to happen and a new technology or a tech area has to transform into a general purpose technology.

A general purpose technology is one which impacts broadly all aspects of our life or at the least many important areas of our life. Today, we are in the Technology Immersion Age, the big IT Behemoths have pushed us into this. Can we find the future technological trajectory for Siris and Alexa, the unseen AI technology of the day. We treat it as another switching of the lamp type technology. This being the case, our capability to create technology solutions would become very limited. We have to look for a technology which is all pervasive, can make visible impact and make lives better and safer. The applications also have to be unlimited, to be felt all over.

In the whole basket of disruptive technologies, only Video Surveillance has the capability to take this lead. Once it’s success is proven at the brick and mortar level, the mental acceptability would increase immensely. As it exists, it is more of a compliance or fad or utility, which everyone needs to have. The proven utility they are not not bothered. We are stuck in the chicken and the egg story. The users don’t find a daily relevance in video surveillance, so they don’t put in their time and energy and also try to keep the cost at the minimum. Laptop is a complete gadget in itself, it does not need any software / complimentary hardware but for the bundled ones, is the concept which we love to follow. The technologist and the vendor feels there is no purpose in breaking his head with this genre of customers and makes his buck and gets away.

Somebody has to bell the cat. If has to be way beyond a sarkari duty, business or academic research. It has to be with a missionary zeal. The low hanging fruits have to be delivered on a platter. The buy in should be total. It has to be an Amul in technology. The technology has to be up on display at a large number of conspicuous places, areas, communities, colonies and campuses. Already successful CCTV network locations should also transform into showrooms and labs of this technology. The locations can be publicized. The magic has to be on display. All who have a stake will have to take that extra mile. A proven technology for a proven purpose and for multifarious requirements would not be as difficult as it sounds. Video surveillance technologies can be made centre stage in a year. We can start with making the Center of CCTV Research as a functional Studio and RVCE as a sprawling Video Surveillance lab. Time to grab the most wonderful opportunity of a lifetime.

VIDEO SURVEILLANCE CAN SHOW THE WAY FOR OTHER TECHNOLOGIES TO BLOOM. MAKE IT A ROLE MODEL.

The writer — Sanjay Sahay is Ex. IPS (ADGP), IT, Cyber Security & Emerging Technologies Expert, Management Guru, Pro Public Speaker & Writer, Bengaluru