These AI-powered video surveillance cameras make beautiful music — literally

Music history is filled with iconic three-letter-name groups, from K-Pop superstars to R&B legends to electronic music pioneers. Now, straight outta Sweden, comes ODO — the Object Detection Orchestra. It joins a long list of musical innovators from Sweden, and while it may not be topping the charts at year’s end, it is making an historic breakthrough.

ODO is the world’s first video surveillance camera orchestra — the brainchild of Axis Communications, a global leader in network-based surveillance technology. It uses AI-based analytics to convert video surveillance cameras and speakers into playable musical instruments.

Your next question is almost certainly, “Why did Axis use AI-based analytics to convert video surveillance cameras into playable musical instruments?” And the answer is as simple as it is ingenious: Axis did it to show how customized its latest cameras are, how they can be trained to “detect any object and trigger any action” in real time. This elite level of functionality has all sorts of real-world business applications, from enhancing security and safety to innovating operations, automating workflows, and more.

Here’s how they pulled off the stunt: Axis’ AI-powered cameras were trained to detect a series of objects (tennis balls, a coffee cup, a fire extinguisher) and each object was assigned a sound. Next, four AI-powered video surveillance cameras were arrayed in front of a stage, with each camera’s image divided into different zones and each zone allotted a musical note. Four human players took the stage and lifted their objects into the various zones to produce notes. The process, as Axis engineer Ghaith Sankari puts it, is “like playing a synth, but in thin air.” Working together, the quartet performed a version of Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” which was famously featured in an iconic 1968 sci-fi thriller.

The slightly more technical explanation for ODO’s magic is that when each camera detected an object it had been trained to recognize in a particular zone, it sent an MQTT signal to a MIDI system that relayed the object’s assigned sound in the zone’s allotted note. MQTT is a messaging protocol designed for machine-to-machine communications. It’s how the smart devices in your home talk to one another. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, and, in this case, it transmitted note, pitch, and timing information to a computer and a live mixer, which in turn produced the music you hear in the video.

ODO may not release another single, but the experiment displays the precision and adaptability of Axis’ AI-powered cameras, which could transform the way businesses manage their safety protocols and day-to-day operations, boosting organizational intelligence and providing solutions that transcend conventional security. Its intelligent video surveillance is not an inert monitoring system; the cameras can be trained to identify almost any object and trigger a range of actions. The result is a highly sensitive, proactive tool that creates a responsive environment.

Consider the application in urban infrastructure, where Axis’ AI-driven cameras can help with traffic and parking management to develop “smart cities” with enhanced public safety and increased efficiency. The cameras can also identify an unattended bag in a crowded railway station, or a person loitering in a restricted area. This automated, real-time monitoring can allow law enforcement to shift their tactics from reactive to preventative by flagging troublesome areas or individuals ahead of time, instead of through after-the-fact, manual footage review.

Customizable detection like this has the potential to not only improve security but also reduce manual workloads, accelerate decision-making, and increase efficiency. The innovative system has applications across manufacturing, logistics, retail, and healthcare. For quality control in a manufacturing setting, for example, AI-infused smart cameras can complete inspections more accurately, more quickly, and with greater attention to detail than previous systems (both automated and manual). The result is proactive quality management at a faster pace and a reduced cost.

In short, Axis’s powerful new AI-backed video surveillance system can help almost any business transform their complex security and operational needs into beautiful music.