Audio Analytics Released (Louroe / Sound Intelligence)

Disclaimer: My employer is Next Level Security Systems (NLSS)

NLSS has audio analytics of the same names built into our NLSS Gateways, and they work quite well.

It is noteworthy to point out that, at least for ours, the audio has to be of high-fidelity AAC compression, which many cameras do not have. Most cameras only have telephony-grade G.711, which will not work. Our white paper on audio analytics guidelines is here.

We have tested Gunshot Detection at both indoor and outdoor ranges with a variety of weapons and calibers, and it works very well. We offer it for free to schools and universities. We do not advertise that offer because we could never figure out how to do it tastefully.

Glassbreak and Car Alarm work as you would expect. Concerning Verbal Aggression, it's spooky how well it works. It is not based upon cuss words, so it works in any language. Just as you can tell when children in another room start quarreling without hearing the actual words, it alerts upon the particular tone of human belligerence. It will not alert upon loud talking, laughing, or goofing around.

One day we were testing it in the office and wanted to try it with a female voice. At the time, we had as an office manager a very nice and well mannered young lady. However, we forgot to tell her it was not based upon cuss words. On cue, this sweet young thing lets loose a stream of filth that would have made a U.S. Marine lightheaded. (Seriously, I had to go and look up some of the words she said) Once she was done, we just stared at her with slack jaws. You could have heard a pin drop in that room except for the system "Alert...Alert...Alert" alarm going off.

Concerning privacy issues in those regions where audio surveillance is restricted, camera audio can be set to generate alerts but not be recorded.

The glass break detection could be very interesting. I'm currently working on a customer site where the lobby is surrounded with windows. Instead of using traditional glass break sensors you could use this module so you'd have more direct integration into your access control system. I think it may save money in the long run over a typical intrusion system, and you'd have a cleaner integration.

The aggression detection sounds really interesting, as was mentioned, for group homes. Interesting product ideas.