SAFR awarded $1.9M in Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contracts from the U.S. Air Force

SEATTLE, WA, August 5th, 2020 -- SAFR® from RealNetworks, Inc. (NASDAQ: RNWK), the leader in facial recognition and person-centric computer vision on live video, today announced it has been awarded two Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts of approximately $950k each or $1.9M in total from AFWERX.

These contracts provide funding to adapt the SAFR platform for use by the Air Force for perimeter security and secure access. Once developed for the USAF, the SBIR/STTR program allows for any other federal agency to award a sole-source contract for technology developed under the program.

Real-Time Facial Recognition for Perimeter Security and Force Protection

In partnership with Security Forces at a US Air Force base, SAFR will be enhanced to integrate real-time facial recognition across a range of fixed and mobile device embedded cameras to secure the perimeter and enhance situational awareness for those charged with securing some of our nation’s most sensitive assets. 

“Enabling Air Force Security Forces to detect persons of interest before they arrive at entry control points enhances force protection capabilities and the personal safety of our Defenders,” said 1st Lt Moore, USAF.

Contactless and Secure Access with Existing Cameras

In partnership with another USAF wing, SAFR will be further hardened against spoofing attacks to provide contactless secure access for authorized personnel using existing IP security cameras. This development will enable the elimination of touch-based keypads, a potential transmission surface of COVID-19 and contribute to force health and readiness. 

“Strong biometric identity authentication using face recognition has the potential to reduce the likelihood of contracting and spreading infectious elements including COVID-19 and seasonal flu into facilities, thus providing additional protection to our operational readiness,”  said Mr. Donald Hudson, GG-15, Technical Director, USAF.

Adapting a Proven Commercial Solution for Military Use

“SAFR is used by commercial customers around the world for tens of millions of recognitions per month using on-premise and cloud deployments for secure access, perimeter security and a variety of other use-cases,” said Dan Grimm, General Manager of SAFR from RealNetworks. “As a US company, we are honored to partner with AFWERX and these two Air Force wings to adapt our technology for mission-critical use by the US Air Force and other DoD customers.”

The SAFR platform is distinguished by its focus on real-world accuracy and performance: 

• Optimized for live video. Face detection and recognition of a subject moving through a video frame in under 100ms with 99.87% accuracy 
• Low bias. The lowest accuracy difference due to skin tone bias of any non-Chinese verification algorithm, as reported by NIST in their January 2020 report on the topic. This is a result of a diverse training data and focused, intentional efforts to eliminate bias. 
• Deployment flexibility. In addition to fixed live video feeds, SDKs support edge deployments on resource-constrained autonomous devices like UGVs and UAVs that support ISR missions and require a small footprint and offline operation.
• Commercial readiness. Tens of millions of recognitions per month globally with both on-premise and hybrid cloud deployments.

These contracts are the result of a partnership between AFRL and AFWERX to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research process and accelerate innovation by speeding up the experience, broadening the pool of potential applicants, and decreasing bureaucratic overhead.