Computer vision based security system for Multifamily properties

[Krishna Chava]

I am working with a partner in Silicon Valley to develop a computer vision based security and monitoring system for multi family properties. Please note, some of the items I propose below might look like invasion of tenant privacy which is a valid concern. I would like inputs from BP community to develop and refine the system such that multi-family property owners and property managers can get useful analytics. Please read on if interested and thanks for your time.

In brief, we will have cameras across the property (entrances, parking lot, corridors and common areas) that can recognize faces, and licence plates and use that information to develop analytics that can be used by property managers.

I own 70 doors and, based on my experience, I can think of following use cases. Please comment on them and and any other functions that would be useful.

Use cases:

1) Log car license plates going in and out of a complex with cameras at entrances. For each license plate in database, we will have complete history of times they entered and left every day. If any of the license plates are not registered with  the property, it can be investigated.

2) Log any people entering or leaving the apartment complex on foot. Since we can detect faces accurately , we will have similar database for people entering on foot.

3) Have cameras in parking lot and inform if someone or groups of people are loitering around the parking lot for more than 30 mins. We can analyze people movement and report incidents like this in real time.

4) Alert immediately if a police car shows up, hear police sirens in the property or hear gunshots.

5) (Controversial but likely legal): Monitor how many unique people are entering/leaving each door daily (from cameras in parking lots or corridors) and log that information. If there are 3 people on lease and system shows 5 people living in a unit, property manager will know.

Idea is to give property managers and remote owners analytics for keeping property safe and secure. It also helps tenants in case of break-in into their car in the parking lot and also could detect some illegal activities. The system itself will look like any other security camera system, therefore shouldn't raise any concern from tenants.

While the technology is developed and ready, business case makes sense at 1% of gross rents for monitoring and reporting. We plan to partner with local security companies for installation and maintenance of the system. 

Thanks again if you have read so far and I appreciate your inputs.

[Account Closed]

I think you have a good idea in my opinion. I have two questions, one is a bit more technical and one more business related. 

I used to work at MIT on machine learning algorithms and decision support tools. The concept is a little different, but we essentially made tools that would have practical applications such as the tool you propose. 

From a technical perspective, one challenge we constantly faced was how to process large amounts of data with lots of noise. It sounds like the technology has been proven so this might not be an issue for you, but one thing we found was that our technology was much more difficult to apply in the real world rather than our simulated sample sets. A lot of this had to do with the pure volume of data - especially, when you are trying to predict or identify rare events. If you have not already tested this at a property, I would suggest that you quickly make an MVP and install it somewhere. Iron out the bugs early. I apologize if you have already done this, but I figured I would share my lessons learned in case it helped. 

From a business perspective, I think that 1% gross rents is pretty high for this type of product. This type of product would best apply to large properties in my opinion (100+ units), because they have the revenue to sustain these types of expenditures. Typically management companies charge 3-5% for their services. 1% for enhanced security seems pretty steep.