Montreal Tech Watch

Feeling Software has released recently a new product, Omnipresence 3D Pro Design. It’s a software which allows security planners to view and optimize virtually camera placement.

I could explain the software with a full review, but this video is much more efficient

It’s interesting since when I met first the Feeling Software team when they were doing general 3D work, such as 3D graphics and modeling. They were already doing architectural work, but were not specialized in security. I find it’s a good example on how a company strategically realigns and refocuses, based on its forces and unique advantages.

Here’s a Q&A with Joshua Koopferstock (@Joshkoop), in charge of marketing at Feeling Software:

This seems to be the third product you are releasing since your “realignement”. Can u tell us more about the market and FeelingSoftware sales? Or at least sales objectives?

Feeling Software’s specialty has always been in 3D graphics and computer vision software. Since the beginning of 2009, we’ve been entirely focused on the physical security space, bringing in an expertise traditionally reserved for video games and simulators to this new industry. The three products we’ve released: Omnipresence 3D Security Platform (a Command and Control platform for security operations), Omnipresence 3D Pro Design (for security planning), and iGuard (a mobile surveillance application) complement each other well, and are part of the Omnipresence 3D product suite that we are continuing to actively develop. Our sales focus is on critical security facilities such as airports, universities, prisons, etc.

Can you name any names you can disclose (current customers)?

One client that should be familiar to all readers of MTW is the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. They are deploying our Omnipresence 3D Security Platform as we speak, to allow them to conduct faster investigations of incidents, and react more effectively in case of emergency situations.

Fun question: Omnipresence could be tied up with facial recognition software. If the u.k. Governememt wants to sign with you to help monitoring its 10s millions of cameras and wants to track and find citizens anytime, is it technically possible?

Yes and no. Tracking people anytime, such as when they go into private areas like homes would be very difficult to do, not to mention undesired by almost everyone. There has been a lot of innovation with facial recognition in the past few years, and this is starting to be applied in some cases to identify people on Most Wanted lists, such as when they pass through the door of a train station or airport. I believe we’ll see an expansion of this technology to more public spaces in the next few years, as it is extremely useful for police when investigating crimes.

Oh, and the UK “only” has about 4-5 million surveillance cameras (see: http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/factcheck+how+many+cctv+cameras/2291167)