As the digital transformation of video has progressed, we’ve seen the same sorts of innovations in video that we’ve seen over the years in other realms of information technology. First came video analytics – a market segment that’s still seeing new and smarter software packages emerge every quarter. Then came innovations in storage, with virtualized servers and cloud storage, which have opened up new ways to reduce storage needs and optimize capacity. And most recently, we’ve seen the rise of cloud-based software services, which take analytics off of local processors and make video accessible remotely. While all of these segments are still maturing in their own right, they’ve laid the foundation for the next batch of innovations, which go beyond simple storage and bandwidth concerns to deliver entirely new uses for visual data.
There are two forces driving innovation in visual data at the moment: the natural progression of technology that I described here, and the cross-pollination occurring between B2B video solutions providers (primarily in the surveillance industry) and vendors with consumer-facing products. Increasingly, these two previously separate businesses are merging in new and interesting ways. The result? A host of emergent applications and tools that takes visual data to a whole new level, creating new opportunities, ranging from image-sharing services to highly complex augmented-reality applications and more.