Smart Detection

Smart Detection is feature in Axon Evidence that helps organizations quickly identify human forms within video footage captured by Axon Body 3 and Axon Body 4 cameras. With a click of a button, Smart Detection can run from either the evidence search page or the evidence details page and automatically detect each person that appears, displaying them in the People tab on the Evidence details page and the People column on the Evidence search page. This tool saves time by automatically detecting and highlighting individuals in videos, letting you efficiently review key moments without manually watching through the footage.

Access to Smart Detection depends on your organization's plan:

  • Smart Detection is included with the Pro license and can be manually run per video.
  • Unlimited Smart Detection is included with the AI Era plan and runs automatically on all Axon Body 3 and Axon Body 4 videos as they are uploaded.

Functionality

Smart Detection detects objects that appear to be people within video footage. Unlike facial recognition, it does not analyze or identify specific facial features. Instead, it examines the entire image of a person, including legs, arms, clothing, and body shape, to detect the presence of individuals.

Smart Detection from the evidence search page:

Screenshot of the Axon Evidence interface showing a list of evidence items with details including ID, title, owner, upload date, record date, category, and status. On the right side, a highlighted panel titled People; displays thumbnails of detected people for each evidence item.

Smart Detection from the evidence details page:

creenshot of the Axon Evidence destials page displaying video evidence from an Axon Body camera.

Accuracy

The accuracy of Smart Detection is influenced by several factors:

  1. Distance from camera: The closer a person is to the camera, the higher the detection accuracy. Optimal detection occurs within 3-10 feet.
  2. Lighting conditions: Better lighting improves detection accuracy. A cloudy day or brighter conditions are ideal, but the system can still detect people in twilight or darker conditions if there is some light source, such as a streetlamp.
  3. Number of frames: The more frames a person appears in, the higher the likelihood of accurate detection.
  4. Visibility: Full visibility of a person in the frame enhances detection accuracy. Partial obstructions by other objects can reduce accuracy.

Assign permissions

Permissions determine whether a user can access Smart Detection. Users with the Start and View People Detection permission can both initiate and view Smart Detection results. Users with this permission can only use the feature on the evidence they have access to via Evidence List and View permissions. For example, if a user only has access to their own evidence, they will only be able to use Smart Detection on their own evidence.

  1. Select Admin.
  2. Under Agency Settings, select Roles & Permissions.
  3. Under Pro Roles, select Edit role for the role you want to have access to automated people detection.
  4. Under Evidence Management, next to Start and View People Detection, select Allowed.
  5. Select Save.

Permissions for viewing Smart Detection results

Users who do not have the Start and View People Detection permission can't initiate or view Smart Detection results. However, there are other permissions that may be needed to see Smart Detection results for Restricted evidence:

  • List Restricted Evidence: Allows users to see Smart Detection results in their search results for Restricted evidence.
  • View Restricted Evidence: Allows users to view Smart Detection evidence.

Smart Detection Quick Start

Smart Detection is a feature in Axon Evidence which allows users with a Pro license to quickly and automatically detect human forms in body camera videos.

If you do not see this feature in your Axon Evidence account, contact your Customer Success Manager for assistance. To use Smart Detection, ensure your organization has the following licenses and permissions in place:

  • Licenses: Be sure users have a Pro license.
  • Permissions: Verify the necessary permissions are enabled for the roles of these users.
Note

Smart Detection is available for videos captured by Axon Body 3 and Axon Body 4 cameras.

Get started with Smart Detection

Watch this video to get started with Smart Detection.

  1. Select Evidence.
  2. Enter search criteria to search for the evidence you need.
  3. Locate the evidence you want to run Smart Detection on. There are two ways to start Smart Detection:
    Note: All interactions with Smart Detection are logged in the user audit trail report. When users manually initiate Smart Detection, the action is recorded as "People Detection Initiated" in the audit log. If a user selects a person's thumbnail to view details, it will be logged as "People Suggestions Accessed."
    • From the evidence search page:
      1. In the People column, select Detect People. Thumbnails of the detected people will appear in the People column.
        • If no people are detected, "No people detected" will be displayed.
        • Up to four thumbnails are displayed, showing the people detected for the longest duration in the video. If five or more people are detected, a plus (+) indicator is shown.
        • Hover over a thumbnail to view a larger version of the image.
        • Select a thumbnail to go directly to that person's thumbnail in the People tab on the evidence detail page where you can view more details and work with the people results.
    • From the evidence details page:
      1. Select the evidence to open it in the evidence detail page.
      2. Select the People tab.
      3. Select Detect People.
      4. After Smart Detection is complete, you'll receive an email confirmation when your people detection results are ready to view.
      5. Alternatively, you can initiate Smart Detection directly from the video timeline by selecting Detect People on the timeline
        Screenshot showng the Axon evidnece detail page. The interface shows the video player with playback controls and a timeline at the bottom. The People tab (B) is selected, and the "Detect People" button (C) is highlighted. A pop-up window (D) instructs the user to press "Start" to begin detecting people in the evidence.

Work with Smart Detection results

Three screenshots of the Axon Evidence interface demonstrating the people detection feature in video evidence.

  1. People: After a video is processed, thumbnails of detected people are displayed in two places:
    • The People tab on the evidence detail page (pictured).
    • The People column on the evidence search page.
  2. People Detected: The number of people detected in the video.
  3. Sort: Select Sort to change the sort order of thumbnails from the default Duration to First Appearance.
  4. Download image: Hover over a thumbnail, and then select Download image (down arrow) to save a local JPG copy of the image. Users must have evidence download permissions in order to download thumbnails.
  5. People Timeline: All detected people in the video appear on the video timeline. Select thumbnails in the timeline or on the People tab to highlight instances where a particular person was detected in the video.
  6. View all: Some results are consolidated in a segment on the video timeline. Select the number next to the thumbnails on a segment to filter the results on the People tab to that segment only.
  7. View all (alternative): Hover over a consolidated segment on the video timeline, and then select View All to filter results to only that segment.
  8. Appearances Detected: Select any thumbnail on the People tab to isolate the image and view more information about the detected person under the image, including:
    • First appeared time
    • Timestamps of each time the person appeared in the video
    • Smart Detection examines all images of each individual detected and marks the best representative image with a star on the thumbnail. Learn more about the functionality of Smart Detection.
  9. Back to all people results: Select the back arrow to return to the full gallery of all detected people.
  10. Isolated timeline view: When you select a thumbnail under the People tab, the corresponding segment is isolated on the video timeline, allowing you to view only that segment where the person appears.
  11. Zoom in/out: Select Zoom in/out to view more thumbnails on the timeline. Zooming in reveals more thumbnails within each segment, allowing you to navigate through detected people on the video timeline.