Chapter 2: Revolutionizing Modern Surveillance Systems: Harnessing the Power of Neural Networks for Advanced Video Analytics, Real‑Time Object Detection, and Predictive Security Applications

Surveillance systems are one of the important applications of artificial intelligence, specifically artificial neural networks, which have made remarkable improvements that make them extremely accurate, efficient, and flexible. This chapter discusses this influence and primarily explores their usage in present‑day surveillance techniques, such as in sophisticated video analysis, live object identification, and prescribed security. The old forms of surveillance were mostly reactive and entailed the use of human labor, which made them ineffective. These systems have been reborn through neural networks, including the Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs), which made several relevant tasks automatic, like object detection, behavior analysis, or anomaly recognition that improved situational awareness and minimized human interference. This chapter also discusses predictive monitoring to shift surveillance controls from traditional reaction-based models toward a forward-oriented security approach. It also covers the ecological and ethical concerns of the applications, including data privacy, bias in the algorithms, and computational costs as well as new solutions like edge computing, federated learning, and Explainable AI for the respective applications. The chapter examines urban security and border control alongside retail operations through a study of live monitoring capabilities, predictive security methods, and proactive threat detection systems. New surveillance system innovations are designed to increase transparency while improving the security and fairness of monitoring systems. As a foundational reference for multiple stakeholders such as researchers, security practitioners, and policymakers, this chapter presents the vision, issue, and prospect of neural networks in surveillance to create a sense of direction for its responsible use.