Closed Circuit TeleVision (CCTV) cameras have been increasingly deployed pervasively in public spaces including retail centres and shopping malls. Intelligent video analytics aims to automatically analyze content of massive amount of public space video data and has been one of the most active areas of computer vision research in the last two decades. Current focus of video analytics research has been largely on detecting alarm events and abnormal behaviours for public safety and security applications. However, increasingly CCTV installations have also been exploited for gathering and analyzing business intelligence information, in order to enhance marketing and operational efficiency. For example, in retail environments, surveillance cameras can be utilised to collect statistical information about shopping behaviour and preference for marketing (e.g., how many people entered a shop; how many females/males or which age groups of people showed interests to a particular product; how long did they stay in the shop; and what are the frequent paths), and to measure operational efficiency for improving customer experience. Video analytics has the enormous potential for non-security oriented commercial applications. This book presents the latest developments on video analytics for business intelligence applications. It provides both academic and commercial practitioners an understanding of the state-of-the-art and a resource for potential applications and successful practice.
