Bosch Security: Enhancing facilities management  

Matthew Cirnigliaro, Head of Marketing for Video Systems in North America, Bosch Security and Safety Systems, explores the benefits of AI-enabled video security.

Facilities management is a multifaceted discipline covering a wide range of areas, from building maintenance and efficiency to security and safety.

As organizations increasingly prioritize security, facility managers are facing a broader range of responsibilities. Fortunately, innovations in AI are making it easier to enhance the security and safety of the people, property and assets in and around a facility.  

AI-enabled video systems use analytics to assist in automating monitoring. They understand what they are seeing and instantly alert to conditions that require action.

The following are areas where they can enhance facility security and safety.  

Alert to events around buildings 

AI-enabled analytics can alert when vehicles and people are near a building while ignoring false triggers, such as rain, snow, blowing leaves, shadows or window reflections.

It can provide instant alerts for loitering, crossing the line of a virtual zone around loading docks or other high-risk areas and more, providing early warnings of an intrusion event.  

Secure perimeters 

Layering AI object detectors with video analytics technology that is highly sensitive to directed motion helps facility managers detect individuals rolling, crawling or camouflaging themselves, even at long distances.

Early and reliable detection of intruders alongside perimeters of energy and utility sites, government facilities, airports and other high security locations is critical and provides facility managers or security personnel more time to determine how best to respond.  

Detect guns and gunshots 

Using a layered approach with video and audio AI for gun and gunshot detection assists facility managers in ensuring the safety of employees and visitors.

When someone brandishing a gun approaches a location, visual gun detection is designed to promptly alert personnel who can verify the gun and take proactive measures.

If a gun is not visually detected, audio AI is designed to detect and classify gunshots while estimating the direction from which the sound originates. 

Designed to be nearly invisible, camera-based gun and gunshot detection offers a discreet alternative to traditional metal detectors.

Its unobtrusive nature ensures a smooth daily flow for employees and visitors in workplaces and public buildings, fostering a welcoming atmosphere. 

Gun and gunshot detection can operate independently or integrate with access control and public address systems.

These integration paths enable additional responses like locking doors or initiating automated public address and two-way radio announcements.  

Track moving objects 

Moving cameras equipped with AI-enabled analytics can detect, classify and track an object of interest, even while the camera is moving and the object, such as a person or vehicle, stops temporarily.

Facility managers can track suspicious individuals or vehicles on property as the camera follows the object and keeps it prominently in the field of view.

The analytics filters unwanted sources of motion from the environment such as clouds, leaves and lighting changes, providing high reliability.  

Detect physical attributes 

With the ability to automatically detect physical attributes of individuals, such as the presence of hats, glasses, bags, backpacks and clothing color, AI-enabled analytics helps facility managers quickly retrieve video evidence of an event or find and investigate the actions of an individual based on their attributes.  

Manage parking  

Facility managers can use AI-enabled analytics to oversee the safety and security of parking areas as well as gain insights into occupancy.  

Analytics can show accurate occupancy rates by counting the number of vehicles entering and exiting a parking area or detecting the number of open spaces.

For urban facilities with limited parking, sharing this information and alternative parking locations on a dynamic message sign can help drivers find open spots faster.  

The system can also alert the appropriate personnel if a car is parked in an area where it should not be, such as in front of an emergency exit or in a fire lane, to elevate facility safety.  

In addition, cameras equipped with license plate recognition help to manage vehicle access to high security buildings.

The analytics adds accurate license plate details to the camera’s metadata stream, helping security teams ensure each vehicle is authorized to enter the area.

When combined with make and model detection, this information can be used to ensure a plate matches the registered vehicle.  

Integration with other building systems 

Video security systems can integrate with access control, intrusion detection and communications systems to help reduce complexity while increasing facility control.

By accepting alarms from various devices – such as motion detectors and AI-enabled video cameras – and using those alarms to trigger actions, integrated systems focus the attention of facility personnel to the events that matter most. 

For example, when AI-enabled analytics provide early detection of intruders along a perimeter, the analytics can trigger audio messages to play automatically through a nearby loudspeaker to warn the individuals they are under surveillance.

The alert can also fault a point on the intrusion control panel, prompting the panel to communicate the alarm to the central station and send video snapshots in an event notification via text message to the appropriate personnel. 

By integrating intrusion, access control and communications within the video management system, facility managers gain centralized control of devices and doors across the enterprise.

This increases efficiency and simplifies system management. 

Envisioning what’s next 

AI innovation is rapidly transforming video security. While existing edge-based AI centered on object detection excels at detecting people and vehicles to alert to threats, emerging Generative AI (GenAI) solutions complement these analytics by adding reasoning capabilities.

GenAI uses cloud-based Large Language Models (LLM) to understand the context of what the camera sees. It follows simple prompts from the user to analyze the video feed more like a human would, without being trained on specific objects or behaviors.

The system thinks like you, understanding the relationship between elements in a scene to detect unusual or critical events more accurately.  

GenAI solutions go beyond object detection – interpreting complex environments and providing insights about what is happening to enable proactive responses.

The technology is highly customizable to meet the needs of facility managers working in a range of industries. Prompts can be open-ended or specific, indicating what to monitor and giving context to any situation.

They can inquire if any safety hazards are present, if an emergency vehicle has arrived on scene or if a crowd has formed in an area, to give a few examples.

Imagine being able to identify blocked aisles in warehouses, improper material handling at industrial sites, vandalism, theft or other safety risks.

Timely alerts improve safety and efficiency by helping facility managers recognize and manage a wide range of risks before they intensify.  

With integration into organizational processes, GenAI-enabled video solutions can trigger other systems to display possible actions.

Alerts to events, enhanced situational awareness and suggested response protocols better equip facility managers to mitigate risk and notify responsible personnel to address potential problems before they escalate.

Those responsible for the security and safety of a building and its occupants can understand unfolding events and quickly identify the best course of action – resulting in increased efficiency, streamlined decision-making and reduced response times.  

GenAI supports a shift in how video solutions can address security, safety and operational challenges. It represents the next generation of AI-enabled video solutions that empower proactive responses and bring even greater value to facility managers.