USEN creates safer shops with cloud-based security cameras, installing 20,000 cameras in the stores of over 8,000 clients

USEN Camera is a one-stop security camera service that remotely monitors stores from dedicated devices or PCs. It can also collect and analyze customer traits using an AI camera function.

“Our security cameras have four special features,” explains Hirochika Nomura, Development Division General Manager. “User Interface (UI)/User experience (UX) focused on retail operations; satisfying live video with low latency; security such as Internet Protocol (IP) restrictions and access privileges management; and inexpensive hardware and cloud storage services.”

USEN Camera has an Secure Digital (SD) card recording function that captures about seven days of footage. The company also developed a cloud service based on customer feedback to record up to 360 days of video.

According to Nomura, “As demand for Internet Protocol (IP) cameras grew, customers wanted the ability to view older footage. With conventional recording methods, media may deteriorate and equipment may break, so cloud recording has become more attractive recently. We therefore decided to develop a low-cost cloud recording service that even small stores can afford.”

To create a cloud recording plan that was affordable and robust enough for commercial use, USEN investigated Amazon Web Services (AWS) and chose AWS IoT Core and Amazon Kinesis Video Streams.

“Developing a cloud camera service from scratch requires a considerable budget and human resources,” says Nomura. “Using AWS removed the need to develop basic technologies from scratch and offered extensive design guidelines and technical support. Our primary reason for choosing AWS was that it accelerated development with fewer people and at lower cost.”

USEN also was pleased with the ability to launch its service while minimizing business risk as AWS eliminates initial investment and offers a pay-as-you-go plan for video storage and bandwidth usage. The company was already using AWS for other services, so the prospect of shared user authentication systems and highly integrated services also drove the selection decision.

USEN began developing its cloud recording system in June 2021 and completed it in March of the following year, which allowed the company to start trial sales for field tests early. Securely connecting camera data to the cloud in real-time is achieved through AWS IoT Core, which transfers data in Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) packets, for authentication using client certificates. USEN adopted the fully managed Amazon Kinesis Video Streams service to develop its cloud recording system in short order.

The company added ultra-low latency video streaming in March 2024. To do so, it used Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), which exchanges audio and video in real time using Peer to Peer (P2P) communication.

“Live video streams have delays when using ordinary communication methods,” says Nomura. “This can be frustrating for users. We therefore designed a hybrid service leveraging WebRTC to view live video with less than one second of delay.”

To build the new cloud recording service, USEN enlisted just two of its own developers, plus two for front-end web work and another two for the back end, completing the project with minimal time and labor.

“Amazon Kinesis Video Streams and its proven results enabled us to enter the production phase without spending much time on a Proof of Concept (PoC),” says Nomura. “With deployment guidelines already in place and friendly advice from AWS personnel, we were able to identify potential problems while reviewing the architecture at the design stage.”

Since USEN launched its cloud recording plan in 2022, it has installed over 20,000 cloud cameras, with over 8,000 stores subscribing to the service. There have been no cloud-related failures so far, and sales teams and customers are impressed.

Says Nomura, “Remote work has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among store supervisors. USEN Camera is popular with remote supervisors as they can view multiple stores, which lessens their workloads. They can also use video records to check customer flows and employee work standards to improve service and solve labor shortages.”

Using AWS, particularly AWS IoT Core and Amazon Kinesis Video Streams, significantly reduced development time and boosted efficiency.

“Thanks to AWS, we cut the usual two-year development time to nine months,” explains Nomura. “We needed less than one-fifth the number of developers that traditional development methods require. Unlike on-premises architecture, there was no need for initial infrastructure investment, which was a boon for costs. And having young workers join the project broadened their perspectives on architecture, which we can use in the development of new services.”

The next challenge is to integrate USEN Camera with the Digital Transformation (DX) services of other stores at a faster pace. USEN is already developing crime-fighting functions that work in conjunction with POS terminals and functions to monitor store worker performance based on movement detection. The company is also expanding its security cameras to more users, launching a lower-cost tier of Live View with WebRTC in 2024.

As part of initiatives for retail DX, USEN released an AWS-based signage service in 2024. This service works with USEN Camera brilliantly, sending a selection of advertising feeds to a store based on customer trait analysis.

As USEN develops and sells a variety of edge devices in addition to IP cameras, it is considering a hybrid service combining cloud and local servers.

According to Nomura, “Stores need to keep their services running and update their software even during communication interruptions. We plan to help them by combining cloud and local environments. We’re looking forward to using AWS IoT Greengrass to make that happen.”