Cameras in cities are turning into intelligent sensors: AI and the cloud are replacing round-the-clock monitoring in large control rooms and helping municipalities work with data more efficiently. The key is not just to capture footage, but to turn it into information that saves time, money, and human resources.
From data to information and a change in approach
Collecting data isn’t enough; what matters is extracting clear information with real value for the city. Every project therefore requires an individual approach: not everything AI can detect is useful for a given municipality. Cultural change is as important as technology — the goal isn’t to sit in front of twelve monitors, but to have a tool that flags what matters and frees people’s hands for other tasks. This approach accelerates responses, increases situational awareness, and reduces costs.
Žilina: cameras as sensors and parking
The city of Žilina is building a hybrid system in which new cameras with analytics at the edge of the network handle real-time image processing. In addition to overviews of area occupancy and counts of pedestrians and vehicles, the system can search for objects by selected attributes and time. As a result, the municipal police no longer have to constantly watch walls of monitors, but work with specific events and queries on a laptop.
An interesting example is detecting parking occupancy on an unmarked U-shaped area, where the camera serves more as a sensor. At defined intervals, a snapshot is captured, the algorithm counts and groups relevant objects, and the results are sent to the central system. These feed reports and overview dashboards that provide the municipality with actionable information for decision-making. This solution emerged after a discussion about what would bring the city the greatest added value.
