By Karen Peattie
Home security tech specialist Boundary has teamed up with the University of Edinburgh to develop an outdoor security camera that will embrace artificial intelligence (AI) to spot potential intruders.
Working closely with Professor Robert Fisher who heads up computer vision at the university, Edinburgh-based Boundary is creating a camera that uses machine vision to classify events captured within the parameters of the home, including being able to determine whether a person has good or malicious intent as soon as they set foot on someone’s property.
The development of the camera is being part-funded by a Smart grant – funding awarded by Scottish Enterprise for projects deemed to be highly experimental.
It will use the latest AI chipsets to detect and classify an event as a potential threat. When a person displays certain behaviour that the algorithm is trained to recognise, the camera will ask the person for identification. If they refuse, the camera’s video feeds will be passed over to a human operator for verification and intervention.
Boundary's co-founder and chief executive, Robin Knox, said that the firm plans to target 100,000 homes in four years with a forecasted £6 million in annual recurring revenue. “There is currently no technology like this available in the home security market in Europe so we believe this has massive potential," he said.
“Since our inception, we have kept cost and accessibility at the forefront of our minds, and our aim is to make this AI camera affordable so that every home can have the equivalent of their own private security guard round the clock.”
Boundary will launch its first product, a smart home security alarm, this year, and claims it will be the only smart home security system in the UK to offer police response when installed professionally.
The firm is looking to launch its AI camera commercially in 2021.
Mr Knox added: “At the moment, owners of outdoor security cameras can monitor activity via an app and push notifications. However, because these camera systems aren’t ‘smart’, they can be prone to alerting homeowners to false alarms by harmless things, such as cars driving past."
The Boundary camera, for external use only, will be able to tell the difference between an innocent shadow in the garden and a "brazen thief determined to steal your personal belongings".
Dr Radim Tylecek, currently a research associate at the University of Edinburgh, is set to join Boundary as a machine-vision specialist while Derek Liddle, an ex-Honeywell engineer who worked with Boundary on its first product, will be heading up electronic design and assisting with technology selection for the camera.
Once launched, the camera will be compatible with Boundary’s smart alarm and can be controlled via the Boundary app.
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