I’m working on automating the process of surveillance system design right now. AI Camera Advisor will be up in Open Beta very soon @ aicamadvisor.com
I’ve done many jobs through a career of selling. All similar, but with different products. The sales processes all varied, but carried the same core competencies required by the salesperson. It’s true, definitely not for everybody. There is a certain personality type that is necessary to be sucessful at sales and when you get into some of the more hardcore types of selling, the field narrows further. I was never a fan of the hard closes or the manipulation tactics. I always preferred to just offer a deal the customer couldn’t refuse.
When it comes to Camera Advisor, I’ve realized that some of the services that are a bit of an annoyance to the consumer can be automated in a manner where AI can actually provide a better outcome at a lower cost. Camera Advisor is a starting point for some of that where certain technologies that have been a long time coming have reached maturity and an opportunity exists where the value proposition is there, and a lot more attractive than alternatives. This solution will allow consumers to make better buying decisions, and sellers to help their customers do so more efficiently and accurately.
When I got through some testing with the prototype I coded and found that it put the cameras I selected for this property exactly where I had chosen, I felt it was ready for others to use and I was pretty impressed that the AI models I utilized came to the same conclusion. It took a bit to get it right, and I tested numerous models, but it turned out the best way involved multiple AI models in succession.
I am working on optimizing the program itself, as well as the models I’m utilizing as well as the hardware and it should be ready for public use very soon. Currently it is only for exterior surveillance systems on residential homes, but I will expand it to commercial, industrial etc and interior layouts as well down the road.
The program will be tied to the Surveillance Camera Database where anyone can upload any stats on cameras available on the market so that users may apply different cameras for their property or use-case, or they may have the system itself recommend the best option given a number of prioritized criteria. The system takes into account all of the different statistics that matter on IP Cameras: Field of View, Pixels/Ft., Types of Night Vision, Effective Range for things like Facial Recognition and License Plate Recognition, Lighting Types etc. so that the user can see prior to an installation what the coverage will be and ensure that critical areas receive the coverage they need and redundancy if necessary. I’ve found it to be a fun project to work on thus far, and it serves as an entry point to other things.
Feel free to follow along as it matures.
Nick Jackson 