Evolv Technologies has just raised $18 million, bringing its total to $30M, for developing what the company says is the most advanced threat detection system designed to prevent mass casualties - in other words, find people carrying weapons into p...
By Brian Karas - 3 months ago
Can face recognition make home security "better"? That is the bold claim from startup Netatmo with their Welcome camera. But with face recognition's historical challenges, can it really work in a sub-$200 consumer camera? In this test, we take a...
By Ethan Ace - over 1 year ago
Facial recognition, available for $150? That's the offer from a startup, Simplicam, who has not only cloned Dropcam setup and user interface but has added in facial detection and recognition. In this report, we share our test findings of Simplic...
By Derek Ward - over 2 years ago
A controversy is brewing in Japan after a newspaper was tipped off about a practice stores use to combat shoplifting. A network of stores uses facial recognition technology to tag customers as shoplifters and relay that information other stores. I...
By Carlton Purvis - about 3 years ago
This company won ISC West Best in Show 2 years ago, recently received $5 million in funding and is being talked about as the next big thing in security and surveillance for its 'revolutionary' incorporation of facial, voice and behavioral recognit...
By IPVM Team - over 3 years ago
Bad RFPs - out of date, vague or just plain confusing - are common. But this RFP is on a whole other level. It is as if no one even looked at it before the project was put out for bid. A small town doing this is perhaps understandable, but it is f...
By Ben Wood - almost 4 years ago
3VR has laid off 15 employees, five of which are from its sales team, IPVM has learned. This leaves the company with a skeleton crew of three sales reps to cover the entire United States, according to a source with knowledge of the layoffs. On T...
By Carlton Purvis - about 4 years ago
Being able to track people across cameras and buildings simply by using cameras and analytics is something of a 'holy grail' for the surveillance industry. Two researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed just such a system that all...
By Carlton Purvis - about 4 years ago
The Boston Bombings reaffirmed how far facial recognition needs to develop to be an effective surveillance tool. Despite the PR spin jobs, facial recognition failed to make any difference. Proponents, of course, are quick to talk about how fast im...
By John Honovich - about 4 years ago
Facial recognition vendors have been tripping over themselves to take credit, insert or claim the wonders of their offerings to identify the Boston bombers. However, an excellent Washington Post investigative report cites Boston's Police Commissio...
By John Honovich - about 4 years ago
Real time facial surveillance is hard to do - accuracy issues, false alerts, cost and deployment complexity all conspire against it. This is why, more than a decade after deployments started they still remain remarkably uncommon. However, one appl...
By John Honovich - over 4 years ago
Biometric credentials are more than just fingerprints. A growing trend in access control readers is face recognition, but is it dependable enough to be the primary credential for access control? Entertech Systems thinks so, and their FaceStation A...
By Brian Rhodes - over 4 years ago
Cold water is being thrown on renewed dreams of using facial recognition and demographic analysis. This time it is coming from an unlikely source and country. The United States Federal Trade Commission has issued 'best practices' that recommend fa...
By John Honovich - over 4 years ago
What if your recorder could automatically identify people as well as their gender and age? 3VR claims they can do this with their new demographics feature. In this note, we examine how it works, its limitations and cost, comparing it to offerings ...
By John Honovich - over 4 years ago
Surveillance cameras are putting human rights at risk, blares a UK government official, a UK newspaper and the venerable BBC, creating an uproar of protests online. Unfortunately, the technical claims underlying these assertions are categorically...
By John Honovich - over 4 years ago
A facial recognition tool was selected by ASIS as one of the 10 best new products at their 2012 show. While facial recognition has been around for many years, it remains a niche. In this note, we review the product, iDentify Face Search examining ...
By John Honovich - almost 5 years ago
Few topics fan the flames of privacy activists like video surveillance. Depending on who you are, video cameras either dramatically improve security or are the ultimate end of it. In response to the recent Wikileaks Trapwire leak, someone claiming...
By Brian Rhodes - almost 5 years ago
Many have tried and many have failed at facial recognition. In the last few years, interest in and promotion of this technology has waned, as seemingly little development has taken place in surveillance. Now, recent entrant NLSS has added on facia...
By Ethan Ace - about 5 years ago
FST21 has hit the industry with much fanfare, winning the 2011 ISC West Best In Show, surrounded by much hype and promises that the future of security was here. Like many of these award winners, however, points seem to be awarded for potential and...
By Ethan Ace - about 5 years ago
The ACLU's surveillance concerns are based on technology that does not work in the real world. Ironically, the ACLU is indirectly promoting technology that surveillance professionals know is little more than smoke and mirrors. The ACLU would be mo...
By John Honovich - over 6 years ago
In Fall 2010, Panasonic announced 4 new IP cameras as part of their emerging 'SmartHD' line. The new cameras include 2 bullets and 2 PTZs, adding to the company's existing 3 box and 3 fixed dome cameras. Key differentiating features of SmartHD are...
By John Honovich - over 6 years ago
The December 2009 uproar over 'racist' facial recognition from HP demonstrates an important risk for real world video analytic deployments. For background, watch the viral video with almost 3 million views below: It's fairly clear that neith...
By John Honovich - over 7 years ago
Sagem Securite's Safran Group announced a new product that can significantly increase face finding and recognition performance. Called Face on-The-Fly, it consists of two strips of cameras placed 4 or 5 feet apart at head height. See the image bel...
By John Honovich - over 7 years ago
FaceFirst is a recent entrant providing real-time suspect alerting using surveillance video of faces. The system is designed to use megapixel cameras and tracking servers at the facility being monitored. The tracking servers connect to FaceFirst'...
By John Honovich - over 7 years ago
The FBI comments on facial recognition: "The algorithms just do not exist to deliver the highly reliable verification required. This is even though the FBI has been evaluating facial recognition technology since 1963." This comment, offered durin...
By John Honovich - over 7 years ago
