How safe is Video Annotation and Can it be used for spying on our personal lives?

Video annotation refers to the process of training computers to track and identify specific objects from videos. Video annotation is one of the several data annotation methods that deal with Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning.

With the help of automated or manual video annotation, computers working on AI and ML will analyze and process these labels to identify target objects in other similar videos where the data is not labeled.

Real-World Use Cases of Video Annotation

Retail

Retail businesses are using video annotation to train and improve AI-powered retail systems to monitor customer behavior and understand their response to different products available. Video annotation is also used to track the movement of shoppers for store owners to plan where to place what in their store to ensure easy navigation for the new shoppers. Even security systems that protect retail shops against thefts and shoplifting use video annotation to send alerts if products are not scanned by the customers at self-checkout counters.

Autonomous Driving

Autonomous vehicles and self-driving cars have become popular over the years, and the automated capabilities of these vehicles keep improving with time to ensure a smooth driving experience for the vehicle owners. These vehicles come with integrated automated systems that also use video annotation to identify objects and other vehicles on the road around the car. Video annotation is also used to monitor driving behavior. For example, the autopilot system offered by Tesla also uses computer vision and video annotation to provide a better driving experience.

Search Results

Search engines are applying NLP to determine the search intent behind the search queries placed by any user, so that the search engines can provide their users with as much accurate results as is possible. One example would be Google introducing BERT in 2019 to improve search experience.

Surgery

Technologies like Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, and the like, are all bringing an outstanding revolution and amazing benefits in the healthcare and medical sector. Systems powered with machine vision are also helping surgeons perform their surgeries accurately.

Traffic Surveillance

Video Annotation is also being used by traffic monitoring systems to improve regulation and safety on the road. These traffic monitoring systems are using video annotation to monitor accidents and generate quick alerts for the authorities whenever needed. These systems are also helping predict, identify, and analyze traffic congestions.

Sign Language

How safe is Video Annotation?

As with any other new-age or advanced technology, there are both upsides and downsides that we should talk about to answer this question.

Video Annotation is most largely used by Video Surveillance Systems and Security Cameras. Hence, the risks such systems pose for people’s personal lives stem through these advanced systems and connect with video annotation.

A recent debate around security cameras and privacy raised the question “Are Security Cameras an invasion of privacy?” which led to “Can Video Annotation invade our personal lives?”. The conclusion of the debate stands as the answer is 42% ‘’YES’ and 58% ‘NO’.

For instance, when you’re walking down a particular street, or driving your car down a road, or just walking with your friends, security cameras in public places are constantly monitoring you and your movement. The data and footage collected are actually a record that gives a complete record of your personal life and your daily movements. The government knows it all. Hence, the answer is “YES, video annotation can be used to spy on our personal lives.”

But on the contrary, we can never deny the fact that these video surveillance systems using video annotation are also helping investigate crimes and protect us in a million ways. If a major accident happens on the road, the authorities reach with help almost immediately, but how? These surveillance systems help the government to protect us. Most citizens believe that security cameras in public places are not a problem as long as they’re not placed in private spaces. Hence, video annotation is also helping protect us in a million ways.

Conclusion

Every innovation, every new technology, comes with some positive impacts and some negative impacts. Video Annotation also comes with its own set of pros and cons and debates around it. But how we use it is upto us. If we think rationally, if someone is using a video object tracking app with malicious intent, it may be both a personal threat to us as well as a social threat. Measures are being taken and improved to control such risks. It does invade our privacy and is used against us at times, but in the bigger picture, video annotation is not only protecting our personal lives but also the society as a whole.

Image courtesy: Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

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