Pervasive Video and Audio

The articles in this special section focus on pervasive video and audio. For a long time, cameras and microphones have been studied to give machines the ability to see and hear the world around them. The remarkable progress in artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years has pushed this perception ability to a new high. AI-enabled cameras and microphones are now able to replicate human-like reasoning and cognition, be it detecting cancers better than a human doctor, identifying people’s sexual orientation, or understanding human speech. Naturally, these interminable possibilities across a wide range of verticals, ranging from public safety, infrastructure efficiency, entertainment, education, and health, have led to the deployment of billions of cameras and microphones around us—in our homes, workplaces, and cities.