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    • Eyes up. Hands free. Developing tomorrow’s public safety technologies Author: Julian Foster

      Published Jul 27 2018, 12:33 PM by Paul Jeffs

      Julian Foster sat down with Paul Steinberg, to discuss how Motorola Solutions’ CTO team are developing future technologies to keep front line officers safe and communities thriving.

      Paul: AI, wearable devices and HD video have all been around for a while, but they’re now really coming to fruition and accelerating at a breath-taking pace. At Motorola Solutions we believe in purpose-built technology for first responders. Technology for everyone doesn’t work particularly well for anyone. First responders have unique needs. Harnessing all of that brilliant tech – AI, wearable devices, HD video – to the benefit of first responders is what we focus on.
       

      Julian: There’s so much data out there, the key is getting the right information to the right person at exactly the right time. How are the team going about that?

      Paul Steinberg, CTOPaul: Yes, with such an amazing amount of data available, getting the right information to first responders is a certainly a key challenge. When developing technology for first responders High Velocity Human Factors (HVHF) are a core principle. The more stress you’re under, the less ability you have to focus on anything other than the situation that’s causing you stress. The ironic thing is, the more you need the technology, the less ability you have to cope with what you need.

       

      Julian: That also brings in the importance of sensors – sensing when officers are in stressful situations without them actually telling you.

      Paul: Absolutely right, we’re all walking Internet of Things with biometrics sensors, cameras, audio pickup devices, and environmental sensors. The trick is to fuse all of that together and make sense of it in the moment, in real-time, to discern the context of the individual. What’s the right piece of information you give them? How can our technology best help them in that precise moment?
       

      Julian: So, this isn’t just a story of data. It’s one of analytics, data and devices working together?

      Paul: Absolutely. As we discussed earlier, there’s prolific amounts of data out there. I think we’ve crossed over 15 zettabytes in the digital universe which is an enormous amount of raw material that feeds analytics and intelligence. But it always comes back to the human being. How do we get that information to them in the most usable way? That brings us back to the devices and technology that we carry the information on.

       

      Mission Critical Intelligence

       

      Julian: Where do you see all of this going?

      Paul: Video is becoming much more prolific – growing at about 100 million fixed CCTV cameras installed every year. With GDPR and some of the other regulations coming along, that creates a challenge. We have more video, but more complexity in managing it as well. With us all becoming walking Internet of Things, not only does AI allow us to take all of that data and extract meaningful information in real-time – it also allows us to interact with human beings in different ways. For example, Natural Language Processing – the ability for a human being to have a conversation with the technology. We like to say one of the most important pieces of research we get is Eyes Up, Hands Free – stay focused on what you’re doing, with your hands available to do it. Voice is still the most natural way for human beings to communicate in that setting.

      Natural Language...

      Julian: Project Greenlight in Detroit is an interesting one. The partnerships with local businesses all drawing video together. Do you think that’s a model that others will follow?

      Paul: I do. I think you’ll see that public, private partnership model continue to expand across the world. Increasingly video surveillance cameras and these technologies are pervading their way into the public and private sectors. The more we can fuse that together and get them sharing information and collaborating in real-time – then we’re making an important step towards safer cities and thriving communities.

       

      Jules

      Julian Foster is Global Co-Lead for the Social Media Centre of Excellence at Motorola Solutions

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