AnyVision launches facial recognition on edge devices for rural law enforcement

A new edge-based tactical surveillance mobile application with facial recognition for law enforcement and military police has been unveiled by AnyVision.

The new OnPatrol offering is an artificial intelligence-based tool for providing real-time alerts from a mobile device such as a bodycam or smartphone. OnPatrol can improve police safety, situational awareness, and community service by providing threat intelligence to officers in one-on-one encounters or group situations, AnyVision says in the announcement. The solution also operates effectively in low-bandwidth and offline environments, including underground or remote areas, matching face biometrics against watch lists of dangerous or missing persons on the device, which can also lower costs for servers, bandwidth and infrastructure typically associated with high-volume video capture and analysis.

The company has been steadily building up its edge AI vision portfolio, including with the recent integration of its facial recognition and other capabilities with Ambarella’s system-on-chips (SoCs). AnyVision also stated its intention to use some of the $235 million it recently raised to fuel product innovation around edge biometrics and AI.

“Public trust in the safety and security provided by law enforcement agencies is of paramount importance. AnyVision OnPatrol can help de-escalate potential threats and prevent physical harm by identifying criminals and dangerous individuals in real-time through our Recognition AI technology,” said Dieter Joecker, AnyVision’s CTO. “It is designed specifically to recognize and check individual faces against a designated watchlist — even when people are in motion, captured in poor lighting, or partially obscured by surrounding people.”

This approach to facial recognition is contrasted by AnyVision with forensic solutions that use neural networks to compare crime scene photos against massive databases to identify potential matches. By matching only against a database of people identified ahead of time by the department as being of interest, OnPatrol protects the privacy of bystanders, the company says.

AnyVision notes the recent announcement of a $7.65 million competitive microgrant solicitation by the U.S. Justice Department and the Bureau of Justice Assistance to fund body-cameras to law enforcement departments with 50 or fewer full-time sworn personnel, rural agencies and federally-recognized tribal agencies.

Article Topics

AI  |  biometric identification  |  biometric monitoring  |  biometrics  |  biometrics at the edge  |  criminal ID  |  edge cameras  |  facial recognition  |  military  |  police  |  real-time biometrics  |  surveillance