What do speed cameras and the card tables at Crown have in common?

They’re both being monitored by video analytics software that grew out of the University of Technology, Sydney.

Video analyst SenSen Networks, founded by a former UTS computer professor Subhash Challa, is now aiming for a backdoor ASX listing through Orpheus Energy (ASX:OEG).

The reverse takeover, ahead of a planned ASX listing in September, will value the company at about $36 million.

But what is video analytics — and is it important?

Video analytics is an emerging technology developed to make sense of the billions of hours of video watched every day on the internet.

Human analysis of video in applications such as home security, traffic management and casinos is no longer viable. That’s where video analytics developers such as SenSen come in.

The video analytics market is expected to grow from $US1.7 billion last year to $US4.2 billion by 2021, according to market researcher MarketsandMarkets.

One SenSen client, Crown Casinos, uses the video-camera technology for real-time monitoring of gaming tables.

The technology can analyse colour, infrared and depth-sensing to determine the number of players at a table, the type of bets placed, the value of all wagers and duration and movement of customers across the gaming floor. The data is anonymised to protect consumer privacy.

Crown’s head product manager Tim Barnett said SenSen’s SenGAME system automated observations they were already taking — and made them more accurate.

“Casinos have traditionally relied upon manual processes to capture customer demand to forecast future demand, but as with any manual process, this has been an inexact science,” he said.

“It is my strong belief that by filling these information gaps through SenGAME, Crown will continue to be at the forefront of gaming innovation.

“We are committed to further deployment of this technology across our gaming floor.”

SenSen’s technology has a number of applications including parking bay occupancy, over-crowding, detection of vehicle violations, traffic incidences and signals, people movement, dwell time and queue length estimates, and face, gender and licence plates detection.

SenSen boss Subhash Challa said a reverse takeover made sense because it gave the company immediate access to executives experienced with the ASX.

“I decided to go the RTO route because at least one of their members will join us to look after the public market,” he said of Orpheus.

“We will have three-to-four people come over into officer type roles, which frees me up to do my job.”

New ASX rules for reverse takeovers were introduced last year to enforce a higher standard of listings.

Under the new rules, young companies now need either $4 million in net tangible assets or a market capitalisation of $15 million to list. All companies admitted under the test need at least $1.5 million of working capital.

SenSen’s tech is in use by 13 city councils and State governments, including the NSW Crime Commission, Sydney Ferries, Manly City Council, Singapore’s Land Traffic Authority and police and Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Investment Corporation.

Mr Challa told Stockhead that for all the talk of the power of the free market, getting those deals with the public sector were key to being taking seriously by investors.

“Effectively it helped us get to prime-time,” he said.

In July, SenSen won a contract for the “supply, installation, maintenance and certification services of detection and enforcement camera systems” for the NSW Government’s Roads and Maritime Services.

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