Beware! AI-Enabled Smart Eyes Will Catch You If You Break The Law!

AI-enabled cameras will soon scan you on the streets, and will detect and identify you if you break any law on the road. A Brazilian security company, Polsec, is bringing security cameras based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology to the streets of Delhi, Mumbai and Agra, starting next month.

100 units of these AI-enabled cameras, called Smart Eyes, will be installed in different parts of these cities for a Pilot run. The company will keep on adding more cameras as necessary and new features will be installed on all cameras as they are available.

What Is ‘Smart Eyes’? How Does It Work?

Smart Eyes is AI-enabled security cameras system which can detect any unusual movements, breaking of traffic rules, unauthorised parking of any vehicle in violation areas in addition to many more features. These cameras are designed to make it easier for the authorities to catch the law-breakers within a short span of time.

The Smart Eyes cameras will observe and learn about human behavior with time. E.g. the camera will learn how many people cross a particular street every day at a particular hour. If the camera notices a drastic increase in number of people, it will mark this as an anomaly and report it immediately.

It can detect if any car has been stopped or parked in a No Parking Zone. It is a 360 degree, fully rotatable camera system. It can even instruct drivers through its speaker. If the driver ignores the instructions or does not take corrective action, then the camera will immediately report the violation to the nearest traffic police to take action. This entire process will be completed within a matter of seconds.

It can also detect garbage and debris on the street, parking violations and unusual vehicle behaviour.

The AI Factor: Will Privacy Be A Major Issue?

Smart Eyes will work primarily on a base of knowledge, experience and intuition. It will learn everyday it is on the job and get smarter day by the day. The cameras will be installed across the city and the data collected will flow seamlessly. Each unit of the Smart Eyes is expected to cost $280 (around Rs. 17,950/-).

In the past Polsec has worked with Swiss, Colombian and Latin American governments.

One of the main issues with such a system is privacy. This system has the ability to cove or blur faces of individual citizens to address the privacy issues. That said, if it is required to check the identity of a particular person in a crisis or an emergency situation, this feature may be disabled.

On the other hand, the data which is collected by the Smart Eyes will be first extracted and then classified in the real time. It will go through an extraction process after which it will be ready to be consumed, shared and managed. How the data is handled and used will all depend on government’s protocol. It can either be managed by the local authorities or directly by the federal government.

The system has been specially designed to protect all the sensitive data in a high military grade encrypted environment with no additional access to the data. The data will always be protected within the system’s own neural network.

Will Smart Eyes Work In India?

Smart Eyes can be can also be used effectively to reduce vandalism and violence on the streets. If this system of cameras is properly utilized, it can help with parking mismanagement, minimize accidents and can make streets safer for pedestrians.

The firm is aiming to install 1 million cameras in India, within the next five years.

AI-enabled camera systems are slowly finding acceptance in India. Recently, Amazon and Google have launched AI-enabled cameras for general public. Google’s camera called Google Clips and costs $249 and Amazon’s DeepLens is priced at $250 and is aimed towards developers.