How Enhanced Video Analytics (EVA) is changing the world in which we live

Enhanced Video Analytics (EVA) is an integrated software platform that flexibly combines the components of video analytics including face recognition, behaviour detection and attribute estimation to meet the needs of customers. 

The need for EVA, or simply video analytics as it is often called, was created in order to make video security more efficient. Instead of security teams needing to sit through hours of playback, EVA can quickly identify people of interest or specific incidents and flag these in the system, sending alert notifications to relevant members of the team if the software detects something that meets the pre-set criteria. 

EVA can be used to analyse video in real-time or post-event and may be used by agencies including immigration, border control and law enforcement as well as in the health sector and the corporate sector. 

As the technology powering EVA advances, the applications of EVA continue to grow. From people and behaviour recognition to Internet of Things (IoT) integration, EVA is changing the world in which we live, helping to improve safety and security, enhance services and creating efficiencies in the workplace. 

Values provided by NEC EVA 

A recent paper by NEC, published on our global website and written by Digital Platform experts (Masato Yoshikawa, Terutake Uchida, Soichiro Araki and Tatsuya Yano), analysed the solutions that could be provided by the use of EVA.  

In their paper, they talk about the values provided by NEC EVA and how you can build solutions that “can deal efficiently with the video analytics needs of our various customers”. NEC EVA is a highly flexible solution which provides several functions for both security and for enhancing the customer experience. 

For example, “a suspicious person detection based on face recognition, detection of a crowd with a high accident risk based on congestion detection and abandonment/suspicious behaviour detection based on behaviour detection at the same time.” These functions all allow for a much more efficient way of carrying out video monitoring, reducing the amount of man hours required and improving the levels of security and safety. 

In the retail space, “a single system can provide for example, a payment settlement based on face recognition, optimum personnel distribution based on queue detection at cash register using people count detection, and the customer attribute analytics based on age/gender estimation.” Again, this allows retailers to deliver a much more efficient  and personalised service to customers, enhancing the customer experience. 

Examples of EVA in operation can be seen below: 

Practical applications of EVA 

Video security has been around for  decades, however it’s only in more recent years that enhancements in video analytics technology has allowed for the advancements we see today. 

Our EVA software is part of our biometrics solutions offering and can be tailored to your business needs. Widely regarded as the fastest and most accurate on the global market, there are many practical applications of EVA across a broad range of sectors. 

NEC EVA uses our award-winning NeoFace Watch system for facial recognition. In October 2019, our facial recognition software was ranked number one for the fifth time by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for facial recognition accuracy and speed. Using this technology, our EVA solution provides high speed and accurate capture and processing of thousands of faces per hour – either in real time or post event. 

Technological advancements now mean that EVA can be used on low quality video footage where poor resolution, lighting or challenging angles would previously have caused problems with analysis. 

As we’ve already touched on, EVA has a number of practical applications. However, the most common use of EVA is for security and safety. Whether this is at large sporting events or concerts or in crowded airports, EVA is used to help ensure the safety and security of the general public. Sectors using EVA for safety and security include: 

• Public Safety and Law Enforcement 
• Border Control 
• Aviation 
• Hospitality and Retail 
• Health 
• Stadiums 
• Small and medium businesses 
• Enterprises 

As well as safety and security applications, EVA also helps to improve the customer experience across a number of these sectors and beyond. For example, whilst EVA is an excellent solution for border control security, it’s also a great practical solution for improving the customer experience as customers pass through border control. EVA allows for a simplified ‘walk through’ arrivals process with EVA recognising individuals on the move and flagging any persons of interest. You can find out more about the industries we work with on our EVA page. 

EVA Case Study – working with the LPGA 

Globally, NEC works with a diverse set of business across a wide range of sectors. In the USA, we are the LPGA’s (Ladies Professional Golf Association) official technology partner. The LPGA has embraced the use of EVA as a way of managing both the media and crowds at their LPGA events. 

EVA is used to screen media personnel, speeding up their access to media-only areas and safeguarding press pass usage to the original registrant. EVA technology is also used to screen all attendees as they enter through the gates. Data from the screening can then be matched to watchlists, enhancing the security at LPGA events and providing peace of mind for the players and staff. 

In this instance, EVA is being used as both a security solution as well as a customer experience solution with plans to roll out an App for fans to use whilst out on the course to find out where certain players are on the course as well as locating amenities such as food and beverages or emergency stations. 

Read more about NEC and the LPGA. 

The future of EVA 

EVA has come a long way in recent years, however with advancements in technology, criminals have also become more advanced in finding ways to beat the technology. Whilst accuracy has hugely improved, finding ways to ‘spoof’ video analytics technology has become a more recent problem. NEC is committed to R&D to improve both our current facial recognition solutions, but also to look at new innovations in anti-spoofing technology. 

Our Liveness Detection technology uses artificial intelligence to detect whether a subject is a real person or not. It is used in conjunction with Facial Recognition to detect whether someone is fraudulently impersonating another individual by, for example, wearing a prosthetic mask or presenting an inanimate photo or image. 

There are many practical applications of the technology – again in the areas of safety and security and customer experience – and this has already been rolled out at E.SUN Commercial Bank in Taiwan. 

EVA technology will continue to advance and with our commitment to R&D and our experience of working closely with immigration homeland security and law enforcement, we’re confident that NEC will continue to lead the way.