The technology has been developed as a collaboration between STC and Datumcon.

Beyond work from home and setting up online businesses backed by social media marketing for outreach, digitisation has also opened doors for virtual as well as offline stores to use AI and cloud to their advantage. To compete with e-commerce platforms which have taken the market by storm during the pandemic, malls are offering algorithm based solutions to brick and mortar outlets, so that they can track consumer preferences.

Surveillance systems are on offer in the UAE, for shop owners to measure the footfalls, while they get insights on products popular with customers via footage recorded and processed by smart cameras. To sharpen the focus on use of visual data further, Saudi-based STC has entered an overseas partnership, which will enable it to deploy internet of eyes in the gulf state of Kuwait.

The firm has joined hands with American tech company Datumcon, to develop computer vision for businesses in Kuwait, in order to empower them with live analytics. The smart mechanism will scan videos being streamed and images flowing online in real time, to provide consistent insights, which can be used for multiple tasks.

Internet of the eyes and ears is the detailed analysis of sights and sounds captured by devices or accessed through the online realm. The use of cameras by public as well as private entities in the Middle East has further laid the groundwork for visual recognition as well as analytics, which will soon be provided in Kuwait by STC.

Computer vision has been the driving force behind facial recognition tech, which has helped the Emirates with crime fighting and contactless immigration, among other feats. Internet of eyes is also a secure way of gathering, storing and reading information in the form of videos as well as images.

In addition to the businesses going online and those that started off in the digital realm, offline ventures will also be able to use this service as part of a hybrid set up to attract customers.