Why is video exploding?
1) Evolution of communication: our means of communication have evolved since the dawn of time, but much more rapidly in the last 15 years. One of the major evolutions is towards “short-form” communication. Until recently, long-form letters were the primary form of communication. In the last 20 years, we’ve rapidly moved to communicate short-form, easier messages. This has happened in part because we can always be reached now, and in part, because it appeals to our innate desire to constantly absorb new information. Rather than spend the effort to write imprecise words, we are now more interested in communicating a message through a short-form video because of its effectiveness and increasing ease.
2) Technology’s ability to store and share content: enormous leaps in cloud storage technology has enabled unhindered opportunities for individuals to create, store, and share short-form video content, creating a depth of information not previously attainable.
3) Major investments by media platforms have led to a global network of the “always connected:” The influence of the written world is declining. Rather than reading a book, most of us would rather watch a quick 15-minute documentary. Enabled by all sorts of providers, such as YouTube and Netflix, we have access to vast libraries of video information. And most importantly, anyone in the world can watch the same video while walking through the streets, whether those streets are in NYC, Bangalore, or Tokyo
To put video growth in further perspective, and the impacts that are currently emerging, consider the following:
- According to the World Economic Forum, at the beginning of 2020, the number of bytes in the digital universe was 40 times bigger than the number of stars in the observable universe
- Approximately 80% of these bytes generated are associated with video content
- After the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers watched or used online video for an average of just over four hours a day. This is an increase of 4x within 6 months. [SP2]
Wisdom extraction from video is unlike previous challenges with text and images
This deluge of data has also raised the complexity of absorbing its information meaningfully and effectively. With the technology that has emerged over the last 10-15 years, the challenges of processing text are largely not a problem. Huge strides have also been achieved with static imagery. But video is today’s problem, and it will require far more developed solutions to solve for video’s massive growth.
Video is rich media. If I write something, I am going to write 1000 words. If I speak something, it will be 15 minutes. With video, words aren’t even required. It’s an extremely condensed form of information transmission.
Video can be complicated because the information is “locked inside” the file asset, unlike text which is more easily processed. But the value of information that can be extracted from video is far richer. Hence why Computer Vision (CV) is such an important, ground-breaking technology. The information extracted from CV is game-changing in terms of capabilities and applications.
Netra’s vision for the future
One of the challenges for all parties that embrace video is that creating video has become really inexpensive, but analyzing video is expensive, and extracting insights from it is even harder.
What does wisdom extraction from video mean? For us, it means Total Video Comprehension.
The exciting opportunities unlocked with computer vision
Solving for video unlocks nearly unimaginable and endless solutions to humanity’s ceaseless challenges. A few powerful examples:
- Helping wildlife: According to the World Economic Forum, by tracking animal movements, we can see where they travel, and what habitats we need to protect to ensure wildlife flourishes. Tracking movements also allows humans to intervene in risk spots and take protective measures. While AI has been applied in this space, CV insights outweigh current technology that relies on snapshot satellite images.
- Disease detection: Via advanced radiology and ultrasound technology, the rise of telehealth will be paramount to counter the increasing cost of healthcare as well as reduce time to service. As video continues to emerge as a powerful tool within healthcare, CV and Artificial Intelligence can partner with physicians to increase its effectiveness and extend its reach. For example, with CV, images can be analyzed for changes over time or progression of disease. CV can also analyze detect patterns in video-based radiology to assist with diagnoses.
- Crop management: With routine famines in many parts of the world, the application of AI to monitor crop health and growth can unlock early intervention. CV can detect when crops are at risk of failing, identify the crops that will provide the highest yield, and track patterns to coordinate famine efforts. Further, CV can detect early changes in crop growth, characteristics, and estimate yields.
Where we go from here
Every company is becoming a video company, whether they planned for it or not. Video assets are critical, whether dormant or front-and-center with a growth strategy.
Our vision is to empower industry to unlock the value within their video assets and provide relief and structured data classification and purpose built solutions to harness the massive amount of content created with each hour to turn it into an advantage...
We aim to provide an infrastructure for all, through which every company can build their own applications and products to start unlocking the value of their video assets.
