What the Emergency Management Experts Are Trying to Tell You

Staying on top of industry news isn’t easy. There are hundreds of reports and insights released every day across the web, and we don’t all have a personal Watson to help us process information. To help you get to what really matters, we pulled out the top three insights from IBM Emergency Management experts.

“Be consistent in your approach.”

Stephen Russo is Director of Public Safety, Law Enforcement, and Emergency Management Solutions at IBM. In his blog on improved crisis preparedness , he calls out the need to approach both “day-to-day community incidents” like unplanned power outages and planned festivals with the same set of tools and techniques you would use for a crisis situation, like a natural disaster. In his experience helping government and public safety organizations implement emergency management technology, he has found that maintaining a consistent methodology allows first responders and staff to “engage immediately and naturally in response” because of their familiarity with the tools involved. He advises that the best emergency management approaches integrate modern analytics, social and mobile technology to further enable the fastest possible response –for events big and small.
 

“Your four phase plan needs an update.”

Emergency management plans often hinge on the four phases of the emergency management cycle – preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. With the new capabilities of advanced data & analytics solutions, though, these phases get an upgrade. This blog post outlines all of the new, streamlined improvements each phase of the cycle gets with the help of an effective tech solution. During preparedness, predictive analytics can make “what-if” scenario planning possible. For response, necessary data can be integrated and made available to key officials even when infrastructure is down. Communications processes can be automated. During recovery, analytics can help ensure resources are deployed where they are most effective, as well as track the success of recovery plans over the course of years. Value is brought to each part of the cycle, but in the end, “the real effects of these new [technology] solutions are felt when they operate cohesively across all four phases”.

“Don’t let your data live in silos.”

Did you also get riled by the poor emergency management planning Jurassic World? (Why did they need a T-Rex sized door?) So does Jen Q. Public in this blog post where she advises on a smarter approach to emergency management. Her top recommendation? She advises “pulling data from disparate sources into a common view [to provide] critical information” at the point of necessity. An integrated view of data allows patterns to be detected that could warn of disasters in advance, and also allows departments to work together faster and more effectively when responding.

Want more tips from the experts? Check out the IBM Big Data Hub.

What exactly is Intelligent Video Analytics? An introduction

Heard industry leaders talking about intelligent video analytics? It is revolutionizing the way public organizations ingest and glean value from video content sources. Below, we break it all down for you—from origin to application.

How it developed

The first intelligent video analytics programs were primitive compared to today’s versions. Algorithms were applied to video to detect motion and the location of that motion on live feeds. As Frank Yeh, Senior Solution Architect for intelligent video analytics at IBM explains in his blog, “Turning video into insight”, these early programs weren’t actionable. Operators didn’t want or need an alert any time any motion occurred. There was no way to distinguish between the motion that required notice and usual activity. “False alerts” became all too common.

In a second, more advanced wave of intelligent video analytics software, this was corrected. Modern programs provide great detail on detected motion including color, shape, size, type and more. Frank explains, “Instead of ‘something’s moving’ you now get ‘a red car is moving eastbound on 33rd Street’ or ‘a bald man with eyeglasses wearing a red shirt is walking down the hallway.’”

As more video cameras are purchased, placed and used for public safety, the development and application of intelligent video analytics has increased tenfold, enhancing a diverse number of applications.

Why it works

How does intelligent video analytics provide value beyond traditional surveillance systems? Curt Brobst, an intelligent video analytics evangelist at IBM, explains that video monitoring systems relying on just human operators to identify action of interest are inherently flawed. While recordings of video can provide insight into an incident afterwards, they do not successfully enable early detection and response while the incident is still occurring.

This is because we humans have limited attention spans. The typical human attention span while watching video is a cool 22 minutes. Even the most dedicated operator is still subject to “perceptual blindness”, or the brain’s tendency to screen out actions in order to help us focus. Even if an operator maintains focus, perceptual blindness could prevent them from noticing unexpected activity.

As Curt explains, “Video analytics is never sleepy, inattentive or distracted. It isn’t overwhelmed by trying to keep track of dozens of video feeds. It isn’t affected by perceptual blindness. Rather, it monitors all video feeds 24/7, notifying human operators when something of interest happens.”

How it works

There are four key steps to developing and achieving value from an intelligent video analytics surveillance system—capture, ingest and analyze, decide, and act. All four are outlined in detail in this blog post. Implementing a system according to these steps affords a number of benefits. Resources are more effectively managed; as video sources increase exponentially, the cost of personnel to monitor all incoming content would be prohibitive. An intelligent video analytics system would manage and tag the incoming data, and make it available and easily used by multiple departments—breaking down informational silos. This allows departments to analyze and understand events before, during and after they occur.

A few applications…

New applications and case studies are appearing regularly as the value in this new information is really brought to light. A few examples include managing traffic flow for a city—on a regular basis and during planned or unplanned events like parades or emergencies. In public safety, intelligent video analytics is helping respond to crime, understand crime patterns and even to predict where and when resources need to be deployed to have an impact. As Frank notes, with intelligent video analytics, “retailers can better understand customer behavior, and banks and airports can understand queue waiting times. The possibilities are virtually endless.”

Interested in learning more about how analytics are creating a safer planet? Check out posts by experts on the IBM Big Data Hub.