Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 22 | Page 50

COUNTRY FOCUS: SOUTH AFRICA applied to an object tracker — the filter can identify a specific type of moving objects or abandoned items.” guarantee high quality results, the neural network learns to perform customer-specific tasks from on-site recorded videos. The technology is available in the Intellect PSIM and the Axxon Next VMS. The classic object tracker detects moving objects or abandoned items in the FoV, before it passes the section of the frame with the object to the neural network for analysis. Any objects that don't match the defined type are ignored by video analytics in that they don't trigger an alarm. Glaeser felt that she needed to use her knowledge and expertise within the industry to help curb rhino poaching. “This technology is applied to video that captures high movement from interference (i.e. beyond the object of interest), such as trees blowing in the wind, light reflected off water, traffic and machinery,” said Glaeser. “I see myself as a normal businesswoman but have climbed the ladder pretty high in terms of this industry and have become a sort of thought leader where people approach me in South Africa all the time in how they can use what we’ve done and how they can apply the technology,” she said. “Usage examples are alarms that are activated when people appear in hazardous areas of a facility, or applications that reduce the number of false alarms for abandoned objects in public spaces.” “I know there are a lot of foundations that support the prevention of rhino poaching but my main goal is to have safe parks and nature reserves, so that when people are travelling, they ask if this is a safe park, do you have the type of analytics that are protecting the wildlife and animals and have the owners taken all the necessary precautions to prevent poaching? AxxonSoft has also implemented a process for tailoring deep learning video analytics to the requirements of a specific site. To “It’s an atrocity when you’re on the ground dealing with this. We’ve now perfected this and it’s working. We just need to raise 50 INTELLIGENTCIO awareness that the technology is out there, through AI and Deep Learning and we’ve adapted the technology and made it into a smart park.” Glaeser says her team has worked with various countries within the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the company is looking to expand the technology into other parts of the continent. “It takes a team to make this work,” said Glaeser. “From the development team at AxxonSoft Global, to the rangers and control room on the ground, we all come together to make these projects a success. Furthermore, we have over 300 staff members within AxxonSoft and 5,800 partners across the world. “I do believe hunting has a place in the ecosystem if it’s done for culling but to just to come and shoot an animal because their horns are very big and they’re going to hang it up on their wall is not for me. I’m not against culling if it’s necessary but I am against shooting just for pleasure. Some of the countries in Africa are third world countries, so it’s about reaching out to them.” n www.intelligentcio.com