Computer vision, an artificial intelligence technology, is increasingly becoming omni-present today from visual search features on e-commerce websites that can make the shopping experience more personalized to guiding autonomous vehicles, says GlobalData, a leading data analytics company.

Venkata Naveen, Disruptive Tech Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Computer vision, with its ability to analyze and extract meaningful insights from digital images, is playing a unique role in fueling digital transformation with interesting use cases across industry value chains not limited to retail, insurance, healthcare and travel & tourism.”

The Innovation Explorer Database of GlobalData’s Disruptor Intelligence Center reveals real-world examples of how computer vision technology is increasingly being used in various industries. 

Retail – enabling to spot shoplifters

Aussie startup Black.ai has developed a computer vision technology for retail stores that identify suspicious behavior of shoppers based on their body language, hand movements and facial expressions. The system tracks shoppers from the moment they enter the store and monitor which products they pick up or put down. It then uses the information to figure out if a shopper has tried to manipulate a self-service scanner during checkout. For instance, if a shopper picks up an organic avocado, but enters it as a regular fruit during the checkout, the system identifies it and alerts store associates.

Insurance – automate claim settlement process

London’s insurtech Tractable has developed computer vision algorithms that help insurers to assess damages and estimate repair costs of vehicles in real-time. The damage assessment system can be integrated into the workflows of insurers so that they can enable policyholders to raise claims by uploading visuals of the damages. The company has trained the system on numerous real images of car accidents to understand and analyze the damage accurately. The analysis is used to create estimates for vehicle repairs and other related expenses and eliminate any inaccurate estimates.

Healthcare – help radiologists in disease diagnosis

Alibaba has unveiled a new AI-based imaging and diagnosis system that can analyze computerized tomography (CT) scans and identity the COVID-19 cases with an accuracy of up to 96%. Analyzing the CT scan of a suspected patient and providing a clinical diagnosis usually takes five to 15 minutes for a radiologist. Alibaba’s AI algorithm reduces the entire process to merely 20 seconds, thereby easing the pressure on hospitals.

Travel & Tourism – help travelers to find perfect holiday destination

Germany’s TUI Group has deployed facial recognition technology to provide travelers with a shortcut to find the perfect holiday. Customers sit in a chair, put headphones to listen to mood music, where the chair uses computer vision to measure their emotions as they watch pictures and videos of various destinations on a built-in screen. It is equipped with more than 2,000 images that represent around 60 different holiday choices. The system, powered by emotional intelligence technology, analyses the facial responses data to figure out an ideal holiday for travelers.

Naveen concludes: “The key benefit of computer vision technology is its accuracy with which it can replace human vision if trained correctly. By adding computer vision into their organizational applications, many enterprises can successfully push the limits of what the technology can do to automate business processes, improve productivity and reduce costs.”