Understanding Redaction Using Studio Space

Introduction

With the prevalence of video recordings from smartphones, dashcams, body cams, and conventional surveillance cameras, privacy protection has become a major concern, especially considering legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act.  

It is a frequent practice for organizations to redact sensitive information before releasing content outside. The content could be a paper document, audio file, or video.   

Redaction is important because it can shield an individual’s personal data, like social security numbers, names of minor children, and financial account numbers, by removing them from public legal documents to ensure privacy.  

Concept

Redaction in VIDIZMO is the act of obscuring Personally Identifiable Information, such as faces, persons, license plates, or any other sensitive information from uploaded files. VIDIZMO provides the ability to redact personally identifiable information (PII) in video, image and audio evidence files before sharing it with others. This can be done in our studio space, through which you can create redacted versions of evidence files without affecting the original file.

Redaction in image and video works in the same way, but first, you have to analyze the file to detect objects in it. You can select from a list of objects to detect on the file. Analyzing the file can be done in the following ways:

1. At the time of upload via Video Insights  
2. On-demand AI Processing
3. Scanning the file for objects from Studio Space 

For audio redaction, you first have to create an audio segment for each place you need to redact. You can also use transcription to search and locate exact words said in the and then use it to create an audio segment to redact that further. 

Understanding How The Feature Works

For object redaction in videos and images

You will have to select the duration of the video and the objects you want to detect. Once the detection process is completed, the AI indexer will index the occurrence of selected objects such as faces, persons, weapons, vehicles and their license plates. For fine-tuning the object positions, you can edit the bounding boxes. In case there are any undetected objects, you can manually create objects in the video or image.  

For audio reaction 

You need to open the video or audio file in studio space. 

For audio redaction, you first have to create an audio segment for each place you need to redact. There are two ways to create an audio segment;

1. Manually: where you'll have to set the start and end time of the segment 
2. Using Transcription: where you can create a segment from the transcription

After you have created objects and audio segments in the studio space, you can select how you want the information to be redacted. For objects in video and image, you select from blur, pixelate and solid color. Whereas, for audio, you can select from mute and bleep. 

Manipulations on Segments 

Automatic Person Redaction  

Like face detection, while the video is being processed by the indexer for detection, it will detect persons appearing in the video frames and will show a thumbnail in the person tab. Merge, edit, and delete actions are available for detected persons to enhance the redaction activity.  

License Plate Redaction 

The automatic detection tool can detect license plates in video frames. License plates are also a part of PII, so this sensitive information can be automatically detected and redacted from a digital evidence file.

Manual Object Redaction  

To make the process more efficient, users can mark custom objects in the video using the drawing tool to have them redacted. For example, there is an appearance of a knife in the video, and you want to hide it from view. You can simply outline the knife by using the drawing tool. Your outlined object will appear in the objects tab of the redaction studio, and you will be able to blur, pixelate or put a solid box on the selected object. 

Redaction Studio Layout and Controls

Following is the screenshot of the studio space. To comprehensively comprehend the Studio Space Redaction tool's intricate features, consult our article Redaction using Studio Space: A Comprehensive Walkthrough.

Use Cases

So far, the feature has been discussed, and a good understanding has been developed. Now, let us understand where this whole redaction process will be helpful. What can be achieved using these redaction tools in your video, and how can you group them together to protect sensitive information?