• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Remember Lenny

Writing online

  • Portfolio
  • Email
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Github
You are here: Home / Archives for Computer Science

Computer Science

Computer Vision in commercial establishments

October 24, 2016 by rememberlenny

Security camera to scene analysis and summary insight report.Computer Vision in commercial establishments

Since the inception of the “quantified self” and corresponding hardware devices, I have been curious about what people are doing with the data they collect about themselves. Fitbits, Apple Watches, and step tracking tools provide individuals with insight about their physical activity. With the increase in data generated about individuals, I tend to wonder how this information translates to groups.

Hardware companies have written interesting studies analyzing the data their platforms and devices collect, but this information is restricted to the company’s chosen points of interest. Smaller establishments, such as restaurants or commercial stores, do not have the benefit of gaining insight from the increase in these data points.

I think there is an interesting way to think about the other sensors that are newly available for analysis, specifically, the sensors that have always been around, but have not been fully utilized.

Tracking trends in public spaces is now available to all

In years prior, sonar, lasers, and similar one-use sensor technologies have been required for computing the physical world with data. Tracking the traffic trends in public spaces or tracking the foot traffic in commercial establishments have previously required specialized hardware. The specialized hardware was available to cities and large commercial ventures, but again, not for smaller scale commercial ventures.

Security cameras in restaurants, cafes, and bars could be used to reconstruct scenes.Software advancements now make common use digital cameras into complex sensors. Using software that processes images, the content of an image can be quickly analyzed for recognizable objects and human behavior. Computer-vision based software can be used to reconstruct scenes using networks of cameras. This allows for common security camera infrastructure to be used for real-life google analytics like analysis.

Data gained from analyzing customers could be used to gauge customer loyalty.Human activity in a common space, monitored with a digital camera, can be used to interpret common movement into analyzable data points. Further, in commercial establishments, transaction data can extend these reference points to understand how a brick-and-mortar business operates. I assume this information would not provide revolutionary insights for a business owner, but would be a great reference over time for change in business activity. It’s reasonable to assume this data, over time, would help to foresee trends in business growth or decline.

In the immediate, this kind of monitoring and analysis is uncomfortable. I’m curious to see if our expectations and cultural norms will change with time. Already, our activity online is analyzed and used as a commercial product. The click-trails we leave behind are aggregated and used to better target ads. The search behavior, communication patterns, or social graphs we create offer greater insight into the kind of person we are than most of us would like to admit. This monitoring of behavior is something people have become both more sensitive to and less aware of.

Given the changing times, I wonder if brick-and-mortar businesses would be comfortable using their existing infrastructure to gain deeper insights in to their business. Further, I wonder how customers would feel knowing that their activity is being monitored and analyzed for the benefit of a business.

This technology is already being widely used in public places. Companies like Sidewalk Labs that offer free wifi using publicly placed kiosks outfitted with high quality cameras, which are undoubtedly being used to monitor public activity. I’m curious if this kind of monitoring and analysis would have required a different approach using older hardware solutions in the past.

Also posted on Medium

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Big Data, Computer Science, Computer Vision, Hardware, Image Recognition

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Thoughts on my 33rd birthday
  • Second order effects of companies as content creators
  • Text rendering stuff most people might not know
  • Why is video editing so horrible today?
  • Making the variable fonts Figma plugin (part 1 – what is variable fonts [simple])

Archives

  • August 2022
  • February 2021
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • December 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • April 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • October 2017
  • July 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • August 2016
  • May 2016
  • March 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • October 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012

Tags

  • 10 year reflection (1)
  • 100 posts (2)
  • 2013 (1)
  • academia (2)
  • Advertising (3)
  • aging (1)
  • Agriculture (1)
  • analytics (3)
  • anarchy (1)
  • anonymous (1)
  • api (1)
  • arizona (1)
  • Art (2)
  • art history (1)
  • artfound (1)
  • Artificial Intelligence (2)
  • balance (1)
  • banksy (1)
  • beacon (1)
  • Beacons (1)
  • beast mode crew (2)
  • becausewilliamshatner (1)
  • Big Data (1)
  • Birthday (1)
  • browsers (1)
  • buddhism (1)
  • bundling and unbundling (1)
  • china (1)
  • coding (1)
  • coffeeshoptalk (1)
  • colonialism (1)
  • Communication (1)
  • community development (1)
  • Computer Science (1)
  • Computer Vision (6)
  • crowdsourcing (1)
  • cyber security (1)
  • data migration (1)
  • Deep Learning (1)
  • design (1)
  • designreflection (1)
  • Developer (1)
  • Digital Humanities (2)
  • disruption theory (1)
  • Distributed Teams (1)
  • drawingwhiletalking (16)
  • education (3)
  • Email Marketing (3)
  • email newsletter (1)
  • Employee Engagement (1)
  • employment (2)
  • Engineering (1)
  • Enterprise Technology (1)
  • essay (1)
  • Ethics (1)
  • experiement (1)
  • fidgetio (38)
  • figma (2)
  • film (1)
  • film industry (1)
  • fingerpainting (8)
  • first 1000 users (1)
  • fonts (1)
  • forms of communication (1)
  • frontend framework (1)
  • fundraising (1)
  • Future Of Journalism (3)
  • future of media (1)
  • Future Of Technology (2)
  • Future Technology (1)
  • game development (2)
  • Geospatial (1)
  • ghostio (1)
  • github (2)
  • global collaboration (1)
  • god damn (1)
  • google analytics (1)
  • google docs (1)
  • Graffiti (23)
  • graffitifound (1)
  • graffpass (1)
  • growth hacking (1)
  • h1b visa (1)
  • hackathon (1)
  • hacking (1)
  • hacking reddit (2)
  • Hardware (1)
  • hiroshima (1)
  • homework (1)
  • human api (1)
  • I hate the term growth hacking (1)
  • ie6 (1)
  • ifttt (4)
  • Image Recognition (1)
  • immigration (1)
  • instagram (1)
  • Instagram Marketing (1)
  • internet media (1)
  • internet of things (1)
  • intimacy (1)
  • IoT (1)
  • iteration (1)
  • jason shen (1)
  • jobs (2)
  • jrart (1)
  • kickstart (1)
  • king robbo (1)
  • labor market (1)
  • Leonard Bogdonoff (1)
  • Literacy (1)
  • location (1)
  • Longform (2)
  • looking back (1)
  • los angeles (1)
  • Machine Learning (13)
  • MadeWithPaper (106)
  • making games (1)
  • management (1)
  • maps (2)
  • marketing (4)
  • Marketing Strategies (1)
  • Media (3)
  • medium (1)
  • mentor (1)
  • message (1)
  • mindmeld games (1)
  • Mobile (1)
  • Music (2)
  • Music Discovery (1)
  • neuroscience (2)
  • new yorker (1)
  • Newspapers (3)
  • nomad (1)
  • notfootball (2)
  • npaf (1)
  • odesk (1)
  • orbital (14)
  • orbital 2014 (14)
  • orbital class 1 (9)
  • orbitalnyc (1)
  • paf (2)
  • paid retweets (1)
  • painting (1)
  • physical web (1)
  • pitching (2)
  • popular (1)
  • post production (1)
  • Privacy (1)
  • process (1)
  • product (1)
  • Product Development (2)
  • product market fit (2)
  • Programming (6)
  • project reflection (1)
  • promotion (1)
  • prototype (17)
  • prototyping (1)
  • Public Art (1)
  • Public Speaking (1)
  • PublicArtFound (15)
  • Publishing (3)
  • Python (1)
  • quora (1)
  • Rails (1)
  • React (1)
  • React Native (1)
  • real design (1)
  • recent projects (1)
  • reddit (3)
  • redesign (1)
  • reflection (2)
  • rememberlenny (1)
  • Remote work (1)
  • replatform (1)
  • Responsive Emails (1)
  • retweet (1)
  • revenue model (1)
  • rick webb (1)
  • robert putnam (1)
  • ror (1)
  • rubyonrails (1)
  • segmenting audience (1)
  • Semanticweb (2)
  • Senior meets junior (1)
  • SGI (1)
  • Side Project (1)
  • sketching (22)
  • social capital (1)
  • social media followers (2)
  • social media manipulation (1)
  • social media marketing (1)
  • social reach (5)
  • software (3)
  • Soka Education (1)
  • Spatial Analysis (2)
  • spotify (1)
  • stanford (2)
  • Startup (21)
  • startups (7)
  • stree (1)
  • Street Art (4)
  • streetart (5)
  • stylometrics (1)
  • Technology (1)
  • thoughts (1)
  • Time as an asset in mobile development (1)
  • Towards Data Science (4)
  • TrainIdeation (42)
  • travel (1)
  • traveling (1)
  • tumblr milestone (2)
  • twitter (1)
  • twitter account (2)
  • typography (2)
  • unreal engine (1)
  • user behavior (1)
  • user experience (3)
  • user research (1)
  • user testing (1)
  • variable fonts (1)
  • video editing (2)
  • visual effects (1)
  • warishell (1)
  • Web Development (8)
  • webdec (1)
  • webdev (13)
  • windowed launch (1)
  • wordpress (1)
  • Work Culture (1)
  • workinprogress (1)
  • zoom (1)