• Vidsys, Objectvideo partner to offer security information solution

    Integration of ObjectVideo’s intelligent analytics with VidSys’ Physical Security Situation Management software would improve response by connecting intelligent monitoring to quick investigation

  • Bosch acquires Extreme CCTV

    Video surveillance is a growing market, and Bosch moves in by acquiring Canadian specialist in infrared illuminators

  • Pointer Telocation shows Cellocator CelloTrack

    The GPS-based asset tracking market is growing, and a specialist introduces an advanced system to help companies in asset management, inventory control, loss prevention, and security

  • On needles and haysacks: New way to deal with large datasets

    The ability to gather vast amounts of data and create huge datasets has created a problem: Data has outgrown data analysis; for more than eighty years one of the most common methods of statistical prediction has been maximum likelihood estimation (MLE); Brown University researchers offer a better way to deal with the enormous statistical uncertainty created by large datasets

  • DHS defends handling of Project 28

    Project 28, built by Boeing along twenty-eight miles of the Arizona-Mexico border, was meant to showcase advanced border security technologies which DHS would use in the more ambitious $8 billion border surveillance system along the U.S.-Mexico border; DHS initially said that the project’s technology failed to deliver on its promise, and gave Boeing a three-year extension; DHS now defends its handling of the project

  • RFID technology to help track donated blood

    Donated blood passes through many hands between donation and patient; to date, there is no good way to track donated blood “vein-to-vein,” with the result being many blood transfusion-related problems; RFID technology will help

  • Analyzing e-mail messages to find insider threat

    Researchers develop a technology based on Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing (PLSI) to detect changes in the words and terms individuals in an organization use in their e-mail messages — to fellow employees and to outsiders; research shows that certain verbal and terminological changes indicate criminal or even terrorist intent

  • Project 28 falls short of promise, requiring three year extension

    After Boeing delivers Project 28 — a system of cameras, sensors, towers, and software to secure a twenty-eight-mile stretch of the Arizona border — to DHS, department concludes that the project lacks the operational capabilities DHS and Congress expected it to have; first phase of project now extended by three years

  • Computer science helps in combating terrorism

    The University of Maryland develops the SOMA Terror Organization Portal (STOP); SOMA (Stochastic Opponent Modeling Agents) is a formal, logical-statistical reasoning framework which uses data about past behavior of terror groups in order to learn rules about the probability of an organization, community, or person taking actions in different situations

  • Face reading software

    Spanish researchers develop algorithm capable of reading facial expressions from video images; by applying the algorithm, the system is capable of processing thirty images per second to recognize a person’s facial expressions in real time before categorizing them as expressing anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, or surprise

  • Maintaining security at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport

    In 2006, Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport handled 9 million international passengers and 405,000 domestic passengers; it did so while being among the world’s most secure — if not the most secure — airports; two Israeli companies, Hi-Tech Solutions and Rontal, made their own contributions to achieving that level of security

  • Detecting insider threats early

    Insiders pose serious threats to organizations ranging from multinational companies to military installations; one way to spot insider threats is to use data mining techniques to scour e-mail and build up a picture of social network interactions; the technology could prevent serious security breaches, sabotage, and even terrorist activity

  • Austrian Airlines selects CabinVu-123 from AD Aerospace

    One lesson of 9/11 was that making the cockpit door impregnable, and allowing pilots clear view of the area outside the door, would improve on-board security; Austrian Airlines chooses cockpit door monitoring system from a U.K. specialist

  • New search tools help separate the wheat from the (data) chaff

    If there is a problem which is worse than having too little information, it is having too much of it; three new tools developed by researchers at a German institute help cope with this wheat-from-the-chaff problem

  • Analysis // by Ben Frankel: U.S. still fighting for sanctions on Iran, but with a weaker hand

    The Bush administration shot itself in the foot by releasing a confusing and partially misleading intelligence assessment of Iran’s nuclear weapon activities; the administration dealt a near-fatal blow to the effort to intensify economic sanctions on Iran, instead creating a situation in which the world will either have to accept a nuclear-armed Iran or go to war to stop it