Hikvision's scene digitization, cutting into the core links of production.

From 24 hours to 2 minutes, how many times faster is it?

The answer is nearly 1000 times.

From 1 gram to 1 ton, how many times has it increased?

The answer is 1 million times.

On October 24, the "Integrated Spectral Coal Quality Rapid Detection Technology" jointly developed by the National Energy Group and Hikvision was officially released. With the support of this technology, the detection time of sampled coal has been greatly reduced from 8 to 24 hours to within 2 minutes, and the amount of coal samples detected has been greatly increased from the traditional 1 gram to nearly 1 ton. Whether in terms of detection efficiency or sample representativeness, the degree of improvement is a major breakthrough since the large-scale industrial application of coal.

This technology has been demonstrated and applied in the coal, power plant, transportation, chemical and other industries of the National Energy Group for up to 2 years, with a cumulative detection of coal volume of 400 million tons, covering 398 types of coal, and achieving rapid settlement of more than 10 million tons of coal transactions.

And the Integrated Spectral Coal Quality Rapid Detection Technology has become a benchmark for Hikvision to promote the digitalization of scenarios.

Today's Hikvision is not only the leading company in the security industry, but also a representative player in promoting the digitalization of scenarios.

From focusing on the security of "people, vehicles, and behaviors" to focusing on the digitalization of scenarios of various "objects" in thousands of industries, Hikvision is constantly leveraging core productivity with innovative technologies and solutions, promoting the gradual implementation and flowering of the digitalization of scenarios in a large number of real application scenarios, and bringing tangible quality improvement, efficiency increase, and cost reduction to industrial development.

01 Achieving the Digitization of "Objects"     Solving Core Problems in Production Scenarios

China is truly a large consumer of coal.

China's energy is dominated by coal, with its energy consumption accounting for more than 55%. In contrast, the world average is 27%, and the United States and Europe are only 11%. In 2023, China's raw coal production and imported coal volume reached 5.184 billion tons. Coal is not only the cornerstone of the country's energy, but also the driving force for industrial prosperity and economic growth.

In the production and sales chain of coal, including mining, transportation, storage, and sales, coal quality detection is one of the core and most special links.

Coal quality detection is not only the classification of coal according to quality, but also the classification of coal products according to indicators such as moisture, calorific value, total sulfur, ash content, and volatile matter, which in turn affects the production, sales settlement, and utilization rate of commercial coal. Accurate and efficient coal quality detection is of great significance for the economy and environmental protection.

The key to the breakthrough in coal quality detection technology promoted by the National Energy Group and Hikvision lies in the integration of multi-dimensional perception, artificial intelligence and other technologies. Focusing on the complex composition of "coal", the physical or chemical related characteristics such as its calorific value, total sulfur, ash content, and total water are digitized through technical means. In just 2 minutes, the data of coal quality can be output, which brings about the improvement of efficiency and cost reduction of the entire coal industry.

For example, at the Shengli Energy Company of the National Energy Group, the coal transaction settlement has changed from once a month to the same day, which can reduce a large amount of transaction capital precipitation costs. After Guoneng Huanghua Port replaced the traditional sampling, preparation and analysis method with the rapid coal quality detection technology, it can save more than 10 million yuan in sampling, preparation and analysis costs every year.

Not only in the coal industry, but also in the field of scenario digitalization business, Hikvision not only pays attention to the basic types of "objects", but also pays attention to the characteristics, states or components of "objects", such as the quantity, temperature, volume, flow, distance, size, defects, etc. of the objects. By accurately digitizing the "objects" in the physical world, the quality improvement, cost reduction and efficiency increase of operations and management in various scenarios in thousands of industries can be promoted.

For example, in many large coal mines, port terminals, power generation and other enterprises, there will be belt conveyor equipment that is tens of kilometers long, and thousands of idlers support the belt to transport coal, sand and other materials.

If the idler is stuck or offset, it will cause serious accidents such as belt wear, deviation, heating and even fire, resulting in the shutdown of the production line and even serious accidents. Relevant enterprises need to be equipped with a large number of inspectors to conduct 24-hour shift inspections along the belt conveyor, and both efficiency and cost are problems.

Over the years, the industry has been trying to use various technologies and equipment such as visible light, thermal imaging, and infrared for monitoring, but due to the very complex real application scenarios, the effects are often not as expected. A "belt" has trapped the industry for many years.

In response to this problem, after comprehensively researching and investigating multiple application scenarios and technical paths, Hikvision innovatively proposed a fiber + idler detection solution. Starting from the belt idler, which is the component with the largest number on the belt conveyor, a stethoscope fiber probe is installed on the idler. This solution is based on the sound of the idler collected by the probe, combined with the AI algorithm, to accurately locate the fault position and give timely warning. At the same time, because the fiber is passive and has a strong environmental adaptability, after being laid on the belt, the received signal can be restored to audio for analysis, and the fault types can be intelligently identified through the voiceprint model matching, making the overall transmission work safer, more efficient and more intelligent.

Like the coal quality detection using the dual-spectrum fusion technical route, Hikvision's this positioning stethoscope fiber solution is a standard "Think Out of the Box" innovation. It does not stick to the traditional path, but finds the most suitable digital solution for the current "object" through technological innovation. It not only requires innovators to have a deep insight into the real application scenarios and real usage needs, but also requires them to have a sufficient, diverse and "thick" technical reserve.

In addition to the energy, manufacturing and other industries, in the agricultural field, focusing on the safety of grain and granaries, Hikvision and Chengdu Storage Research Institute of Sinograin jointly developed the AI Pest Monitoring and Analysis Terminal. Through the AI recognition algorithm and the 4-megapixel white light supplementary spherical machine, the number of pests is fed back in real time, so that the grain warehouse can timely identify and warn of pest threats to ensure the safety of the grain warehouse.

In the field of building materials and chemical industry, in the factory of Zhanjiang Baowu Environmental Technology Co., Ltd., focusing on the problem of mineral powder measurement that plagues the industry, Hikvision uses the high penetration ability of millimeter-wave signals to dust and uses the three-dimensional scanning imaging radar to conduct 360° high-precision scanning in the warehouse for 24 hours, so that the measurement workers do not need to experience the wind and rain on the top of the warehouse in bad weather, and can also grasp the warehouse location in real time and control the stable operation of production.

There are many similar cases. From a small screw on the production line and a grain in the granary to a large wind turbine or steel plant blast furnace with hundreds or thousands of tons, in thousands of industries, Hikvision is constantly promoting the digitalization of various production facilities and production scenarios, integrating technologies such as the Internet of Things perception, artificial intelligence and big data to find the most suitable solution for the scenario needs and solve the most urgent core problems.

02 Polishing Technical Product Capabilities to Be the "Master of All Trades" in Scenario Digitization

"Hikvision does not pursue disruptive technologies to solve problems, but we will provide many products with different technologies and products that integrate multiple technologies to solve a certain problem. We hope to become the master of all trades in scenario digitization," said Hu Yangzhong, Chairman of Hikvision, in an interview with the media.

In the era of the Internet of Everything and the AIoT scenario, there are a large number of problems that are rich in applications, complex and cannot be solved with single-point technologies. To be the master of all trades in scenario digitization, enterprises are required to have sufficient technologies and products as support, and develop many AIoT solutions that are close enough to reality, so as to truly penetrate into thousands of industries and solve more real problems.

Whether it is the Integrated Spectral Coal Quality Rapid Detection Technology, the Positioning Stethoscope Fiber Technology, the AI Pest Monitoring and Analysis, or the Three-Dimensional Scanning Imaging Radar, they are only a small part of Hikvision's intelligent Internet of Things technology product system.

In fact, in the accumulation and polishing of more than 20 years, Hikvision has established a rich "technical warehouse" and "product supermarket".

As shown in the above figure, over the past 20 years, Hikvision has built a relatively complete technical, product and business system. Its top layer is the two core business directions of security and scenario digitization. The middle layer is a product system including a large number of systems, devices and modules. And the bottom layer supporting this system is a vast AIoT "technical black land".

In terms of business, security mainly focuses on unsafe factors such as people, vehicles and behaviors, while scenario digitization mainly focuses on the status of objects. Although the two have differences in specific application scenarios, after gradually peeling to the core, it will be found that they share a large number of underlying technical capabilities of AIoT.

For example, the thermal imaging camera based on the principle of thermal radiation technology is used for perimeter defense or forest fire prevention in the security market. In the scenario digitization business, this technical capability can also be applied in the industrial field to conduct industrial temperature measurement in steel and industrial material production enterprises to help improve production efficiency and ensure product quality. Radar technology is mainly used for the detection of moving targets in perimeter defense and vehicle speed measurement in the security industry. When extended to the industrial field, industrial radar can measure the level and liquid level of objects.

As the leader in the security field, Hikvision has many years of deep accumulation in the field of visible light analysis. And more than 10 years ago, Hikvision started to explore the electromagnetic wave technology fields such as infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray and millimeter-wave step by step from visible light.

On this basis, Hikvision further expands the capabilities of the Internet of Things perception to the mechanical wave field, opens up multi-dimensional perception technologies such as acoustic wave monitoring and ultrasonic imaging, realizes the comprehensive capture and analysis of environmental information, and gradually builds a multi-sensor technology system for temperature, humidity, pressure, magnetic force, etc., and finally builds a solid Internet of Things perception technology base.

Thanks to this expansion from video perception to extensive Internet of Things perception technology, today's Hikvision's scenario digitization solution can have "eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind", and can comprehensively perceive the status of thousands of "objects" in many scenarios such as manufacturing, logistics, power, medical, food, transportation, etc., thus laying a solid foundation for the subsequent automation and intelligence of scenario digitization.

And artificial intelligence technology and big data technology provide an intelligent basis for Hikvision's various scenario digitization solutions.

In the field of artificial intelligence, as early as 2006, Hikvision established an algorithm team and began to layout artificial intelligence technology. After years of continuous investment and R & D innovation, it has established a deep accumulation in the field of artificial intelligence and innovatively launched the Hikvision Guanlan Large Model, relying on the large model technology to help more industry users solve personalized intelligent application needs.

The Internet of Things perception, artificial intelligence and big data. Relying on these three pillar technical bases, Hikvision has created more than 30,000 types of hardware products. For the typical application needs of digital transformation, it has also specially developed a series of new digital products, covering more than 10 main industries such as energy and metallurgy, express logistics, commercial retail, building materials and chemicals, ecological and environmental protection, and nearly 90 sub-industries, growing into a lush "technical forest".

03 Accumulating Strength for a Natural Outcome

According to IDC data, by 2025, more than 150,000 Internet of Things devices will be connected to the network every minute globally; in 2026, the total number of Internet of Things device connections in China will reach an astonishing 10.25 billion, with a compound growth rate of as high as 18% from 2022 to 2026, and will continue to maintain a high growth rate.

At present, the global smart Internet of Things devices are far from reaching the upper limit. With the increasing number of digital application scenarios in thousands of industries, sensing devices with more capabilities and more intelligence will also usher in an era of species explosion, promoting hundreds of millions of "objects" that have not been digitized before to the intelligent era.

Energy and metallurgy, express logistics, commercial retail, building materials and chemicals, ecological and environmental protection... In various industries, more and more enterprises are regarding digitalization as an important source of productivity, and more and more scenarios are opening their arms to welcome the digital transformation.

There is no doubt that the digital transformation of enterprises will be a continuous iterative and constantly improving process. It cannot meet all needs through a single function or a single product, and it needs to be continuously iterated and upgraded. On the basis of the existing digitalization, it is necessary to further improve quality, reduce costs, increase efficiency, improve production safety, improve digital quality, and lead the high-quality development of enterprises.

As the provider of scenario digitization solutions, today, Hikvision is still constantly developing innovative and intelligent new digital products, and exploring and polishing more excellent solutions in various real digital scenarios, continuously changing, continuously updating and continuously growing itself.

With 20 years of technical accumulation, Hikvision can be said to have accumulated strength for a natural outcome. It is continuing to move forward on this road of continuously promoting the digitalization of scenarios, solving specific problems for thousands of industries and bringing value.