Are you getting the most out of your security cameras? Even if you have trained observers monitoring your cameras 24 hours a day, you could do better, says Kevin Shahbazi, CEO of Avocado Security. The young company is just about to launch Avocado Express 2.0 after having version 1.0 in the field with a limited number of customers for about a year. Avocado Express "converts CCTV images into graphs," as Shahbazi describes it.

Avocado can pull images from a variety of closed-circuit television cameras and devices from different vendors. It then analyzes the images and creates reports and graphs that translate what's on screen into information that you can act on. Avocado can send alerts if it detects unusual behavior caught by the cameras.

Shahbazi pointed out some ways that businesses can use Avocado to get more value out of their security cameras. For example, many businesses that can't keep a 24x7 watch on all their cameras don't know right away when a camera stops recording or moves out of the proper position. Businesses might have cameras and digital video recorders (DVRs) from a variety of vendors, making it hard to integrate the information gathered. Avocado's reports and graphs bring the first problem to light more quickly and addresses the second problem through its compatibility with a range of security equipment. In addition, Shahbazi suggests that Avocado's ability to analyze the activity taking place in front of the camera could let you use a security camera for a second purpose -- say for gathering sales traffic information for a given area of a store.

Avocado Express will be available April 2.