Zero Image Video Surveillance

by | May 23, 2019 | Blog

The greatest limitation on the deployment of video cameras is not going to be technology but concerns about privacy.  People have legitimate privacy concerns when they see cameras, and we already have many laws mandating disclosure and forbidding use in some circumstances.  NICE changes the game.  Now we can create systems that fully exploit the power of vision but protect privacy by keeping the images within the camera and controlling which events are signaled by the sensor.  Camera sensors have the power to do this, but until now there was no way to effectively tell them what to do and how.

For example, in a home you could upload the faces of family members and frequent guests and then ignore all images where those faces were present.  You could then use video surveillance to look for all anomalies without having to worry about any loss of privacy.  Public cameras could look for specific faces under court order but ignore everyone else.  The opportunities are endless.  The key is building a system based on vision which does not transmit images beyond its eyes, unless specifically instructed to do so.  Today’s home cameras from Google, Amazon and others transmit all their images to their supplier under control of their respective privacy policies.  We think consumers will opt to change when given the choice.

NICE creates the framework for device and software certification, and the layered architecture enables even more privacy firewalls.  We look forward to the ecosystem building on this to simultaneous give us more and more valuable services while increasing privacy.