Cloudastructure’s Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing Cannabis Surveillance

Failing to meet video surveillance compliance regulations in the cannabis industry can prove costly; In California, failure to maintain the required video storage operates on a sliding “3 Strikes” scale, with the first infractions subject to $1,000 per violation per day, up to $30,000 per violation and the possibility of suspension or revocation of a state license to operate. State and federal laws require that businesses keep their daily operations under constant video surveillance so criminality and malpractice can be stopped in their tracks. 

The Challenges of Compliance

Historically, setting up the necessary surveillance was not only tedious, but ineffective. There were no software applications that allowed entrepreneurs to sift through their visual information with ease: retrieving footage literally took hours of staring at unoccupied footage, while scaling was a logistical nightmare. Busy entrepreneurs, concerned only with meeting the requirements, had visibility, but no intelligence. 

The AI Enabled Solution

Today, there’s Cloudastructure. Cloudastructure’s cloud-based AI video surveillance platform means footage is uploaded via a secure Cloud Video Recorder (CVR) that is inaccessible to the outside world. Once the data is secured in the cloud, a multi-tiered permissions system enables credentialed staff to download the footage from their mobile phone or any device with internet access within minutes. The software is intuitively designed and user-friendly, and Cloudastructure’s employees are ready to help with both the installation and any queries. The company even offers turnkey solutions that ensure the cameras not only meet even the most obscure compliance guidelines, but ensure the cameras maximize their usefulness in detecting crime.

Best of all is Cloudastructure’s Artificial Intelligence (AI), which the company has integrated in such a way so that cannabis entrepreneurs can monitor everything that goes on at their facilities, from dispensaries to farms and warehouses. Their rapid search capabilities include facial recognition, advanced license plate recognition, “elastic searches” which combine those powers, and much more. Thanks to their advanced AI algorithms, Cloudastructure’s surveillance systems can do things their competitors struggle to offer: identifying and tracking suspicious or after-hours visitors, and notifying you immediately of a breach of your facility. 

Cloudastructure’s surveillance not only tells you who is on your property, but also how many people there are at any given time. The cameras are trained to pick up on other important details as well, such as a person’s age and gender. They can even let you know if someone is or isn’t wearing a mask—a literal life-saving feature during the pandemic. Cloudastructure also allows for access control, which is a fancy way of saying you can use their software to lock or unlock your facilities remotely. 

A Surveillance Scenario

Listing all the different ways in which Cloudastructure’s surveillance software can be put to use would take a long time—too long for an article. However, there is one other important feature worth pointing out. Let’s say someone breaks into one of your facilities and steals a certain amount of cash or products. You don’t know who they are or what they look like, but a witness says they saw them making off in a red car. 

With any other brand of surveillance tech, you’d have to manually review all the footage from the previous night in order to find the culprit, minute by minute, camera by camera. Footage recorded and processed with Cloudastructure is motion-based, eliminating countless hours of staring at empty screen, as well as color coded, meaning all you have to do is use the interface to search for a “red car” and up comes the bit of footage you’ve been looking for, which you can subsequently download in an email to law enforcement, and they can issue a “BOLO” (Be On the LookOut) alert. Cloudastructure allows you to be on a thief’s heels before they’ve even left the parking lot. 

Trainable AI

Cloudastructure enables you to further customize your software beyond what the company designs for all users. The longer your software runs, you can aid its discovery of unwanted attention by identifying bad actors and labeling them and request alerts if they enter the premises: from illicit employees to unwelcome strangers. Additionally, the software is regularly updated by Cloudastructure: widgets get added, while errors get patched. Gone are the days where you had to worry about constantly purchasing the newest, most advanced hardware, or ensuring your IT team must update patches for cybersecurity. With Cloudastructure, you can breathe easily knowing your facilities get more secure by the hour, with little or no effort on your part.

In the Future

There’s no end to where AI surveillance can enable your company. Cloudastructure’s engineers are constantly working on new widgets that could make their tech even more powerful than it already is. One of their most exciting plans is a tool that would allow surveillance systems to monitor the health of both individual cannabis plants, and whole colonies, notifying growers whenever they require attention. They are also looking to integrate environmental sensors that can read humidity and temperature levels, giving growers vital information to maximize their crop, which they can then use to improve their yields.

Cloudastructure’s AI-enforced surveillance technology is tried and tested. To get confirmation of its strength and usefulness, you need only to ask the entrepreneurs that use it to monitor their business operations. Entrepreneurs aren’t the only ones in awe of Cloudastructure’s software, however. Back in November, the company was declared the 2021 winner for Best Video Analytics Solution at American Security Today’s Astor Awards. The company has also been shortlisted for multiple, international 2022 Cloud Awards, including:

• Cloud Innovator of the Year
• Best Cloud-Native Solution
• Best Use of AI in Cloud Computing
• Security Innovation of the Year

The victory is simply a testament to the years of hard work Cloudastructure has poured into an exemplary product—one that stands poised to revolutionize the way in which visual information is recorded and processed in the cannabis industry.