The wave of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that have taken the security market by storm in recent years has also opened the doors of the industry to a number of new market entrants from a wide range of technology disciplines. From ground-based robotics and aerial drones to deep learning algorithms for improved video analysis and business operations, today’s security industry seems awash in fresh investment dollars and companies that believe they have a game-changing product to offer systems integrators and end-users.
However, given the industry’s previous experience with technologies that have over-promised and under-delivered, trying to win over security practitioners, consultants and installers takes more than clever marketing. One company that is looking to rise above much of the marketing hype that surrounds AI today and make a positive market impact on end users is Kogniz. The Silicon Valley-based firm, which made its official debut in the market last month with the launch of its AICam product, boasts an engineering staff and executive team whose backgrounds are steeped in machine learning, computer vision and AI.
According to Kogniz Co-CEO and Head of Business Daniel Putterman, the company, which specializes in video-based facial recognition and object detection, can provide much more actionable intelligence with its technology than has been possible with traditional video analytics. “It’s one thing to say, ‘I saw 500 people come into your building today.’ That’s interesting information but it is not very actionable,’ he says.
Despite some of the technological breakthroughs that have occurred on the consumer side of the business in recent years with the advancement of smart home and residential security devices, Putterman says there have been relatively few real innovations for enterprise-class security customers when it comes to video surveillance.
“Just candidly speaking, if you look at breakthroughs on the enterprise side, we’re basically seeing NVRs in the cloud. We’ve had cloud recording on the consumer side forever, but finally we’re starting to see surveillance recorded in the cloud but you’re still having tons and tons of people scour through surveillance video when anything happens,” he says. “What we said is, ‘Look… you have an unbelievable opportunity to deploy computer vision and machine learning and let the computer be a new set of eyes for you.’”
Specifically, Putterman says that the company’s AICam with accompanying software has the ability to recognize specific people, objects and even patterns of visits to identify suspicious behaviors. The camera’s facial recognition capabilities also enable it to determine who is and who is not allowed in certain areas and at certain times, thereby providing users with an additional layer of access control.
“It really flips security video on its head in the sense that instead of being a very passive system, all of sudden we’re using the latest innovations in computer science to make it a very active system,” Putterman adds.
From a hardware perspective, Putterman explains that the company has put so much computational power into the cameras themselves that the additional infrastructure typically required to run facial recognition is not needed with the AICam and the cloud services they offer. More cameras can also be added on demand as needed to help users scale up as necessary.
A Different Approach to the Market
Unlike the vast majority of video surveillance vendors that sell exclusively through the channel, Kogniz is going to be offering its products directly to end-users. Although they do not “underestimate” the valuable role that integrators play in the industry, Putterman says with the capabilities they bring to bear that they have simply decided to go an alternate route to the market for now.
“Capabilities like we’re talking about with Kogniz, a lot of those (purchasing) decisions will come from organizations themselves – whether it be a school, police department, a corporation worried about their lobby or secure area, an airport, or a number of other verticals that are specifically interested in this technology. It’s not general surveillance, it is intelligent security,” Putterman explains.
Kogniz currently has two available camera models, both of which feature about the same level of computing power and 30 days of cloud storage. The higher-end model retails for $995 with a $99 monthly fee that covers the analytic capabilities as well as other services offered through the Kogniz Edge Platform. The company also recently rolled out a new compact model that retails for about half the half the price but with same monthly service charge.
“This is a way for companies to get going, whether you are big or small, and it’s a way of democratizing the technology that was historically only available to (large) companies starting at a price tag of millions of dollars that now, someone for a price tag of under a thousand dollars can get up and running in under five minutes,” Putterman says. “From there, we expect that the installer and integrator network will get involved because, when it comes to putting up lots of cameras and infrastructure, they’re obviously very experienced at doing that and we have every intention of working with them. But, I think it’s really important to let these individual organizations make the decision to try the technology, be able to buy our line and install it in a few minutes to get it up and running.”
While time will tell as to what the exact sweet spot for their technology will be in the industry, Putterman says they’ve already seen a lot of interest from schools, law enforcement, government agencies, corporate facilities, as well as retailers.
“You can think about our product line as being the Tesla of cameras,” Putterman says. “You buy a great piece of hardware that has an incredible amount of power and it keeps getting better through software. We’re constantly offering new capabilities, new activities that we recognize, new objects that we recognize, etc. Instead of having to replace your cameras, they just continue to get smarter and smarter.”
About the Author:
Joel Griffin is the Editor-in-Chief of SecurityInfoWatch.com and a veteran security journalist. You can reach him at [email protected].
