Computer Vision for Critical Infrastructure Protection

By Adam Pease

Computer vision has been making waves throughout a variety of different industries as business leaders recognize the promise of using image and video recognition to transform the basic workflows that make up their enterprise. Now, computer vision is beginning to receive more attention as a critical infrastructure component in high-stakes areas such as the energy sector. This blog discusses the rise of computer vision in critical infrastructure and what this may suggest about the future of computer vision in general.

Computer Vision in the Oil and Gas Sector

Monday kicked off the yearly ADIPEC conference, which gathers some of the most influential voices in oil and gas in Abu Dhabi to discuss the industry’s future. Adipec brought together more than 100,000 energy professionals, 2,000 exhibiting companies, and 8,000 conference delegates. At the event there were a growing number of companies focused on AI and computer vision. The conference, which brought OPEC leaders together with major oil companies, featured some interesting discussions about the tech-driven innovations that will be coming to this market. One new voice in the sector, ElectrifAi, debuted a set of computer vision services specifically tailored to the energy sector.

ElectrifAi delivers its computer vision application features as pre-structured models designed to solve problems for energy infrastructure. For oil and gas companies, it offers tools for infrastructure monitoring, detecting environmental hazards like methane, and general surveillance and safety at infrastructure sites. These tools are designed to help secure critical oil and gas infrastructure through the added layer of intelligence provided by visual recognition.

Infrastructure and the Rise of Computer Vision as a Service

Earlier this year, Aragon published a Research Note about emerging trends in computer vision, where we identified the rise of computer vision as a service as one of the most important trends to grasp for understanding this market. Computer vision as a service refers to the delivery of computer vision models and application capabilities through enterprise-friendly service packages that enable business leaders to take advantage of AI capabilities with minimal setup and a provided cloud environment.

ElecrtifAi’s move to offer a package of specific infrastructure protection services that is specifically geared to the oil and gas industry reveals much about the trajectory of the computer vision market. In general, computer vision solutions are emerging as service-based packages that offer out-of-the-box support for enterprise deployment in increasingly narrow use cases. We expect these kinds of product offerings to expand the adoption of computer vision and pave the way for the introduction of computer vision as a baseline requirement for infrastructure in high-stakes industries. Years from now, it may be difficult for us to imagine a piece of critical infrastructure like an oil pipeline that does not have an automated surveillance system like the kind ElectrifAi is offering.

Bottom Line

It remains to be seen whether ElectrifAi’s specific solution will be widely adopted in oil and gas. However, the rise of service-based solutions to specific use cases is a trend in computer vision that suggests the increasing market penetration of computer vision as a technology category. Look out for Aragon Research’s upcoming Note about emerging use cases in computer vision to learn more.