S&I is a leading building management service provider in Korea. S&I has deployed Scenera’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to enable real-time monitoring of events within S&I managed locations — using existing cameras in the buildings. The solution is capable of detecting events such as intrusion, accidental falls, people fighting, loitering and left behind items. The solution also provides x-ray image analysis, to detect unauthorized devices. Real-time notifications of these events are sent to security personnel who can then respond to these events.
Visit Microsoft Customer Stories for more information on “Achieving Edge-to-Cloud Processing forDX with AI Capabilities in Facility Management”.
The Problem
Processing of camera feeds is computationally intensive. One conventional approach to addressing compute without Edge processing on the premises requires expensive bandwidth to deliver many live video feeds to the cloud. Alternatively, on-premise Edge computing can be applied to the live video feeds. However, this can be cost-prohibitive, requiring significant deployment of capable hardware to handle all the camera feeds.
The question arises whether it is possible to intelligently distribute the processing load between the Cloud and the On-Premise Edge so that lightweight processing performed at the Edge can limit, or “gate” traffic from the Edge to the Cloud. In particular, might there be an approach whereby the system can leverage lightweight and inexpensive processing algorithms on the Edge, and compensate for this by using a more intensive and accurate algorithm in the cloud when needed?
The Solution
Scenera, TNM, and Microsoft worked together to deploy an architecture that allowed the distributed processing of people counting. This entailed running constrained algorithms which tend to be more inaccurate on the Edge in the customer’s premises. This enables either lower cost hardware to be used or a larger number of cameras to be processed on the Edge processing hardware.
The results from the constrained algorithm have a large number of errors. To overcome this, results with a lower certainty are forwarded to a Network Edge Cluster with a more robust and accurate algorithm. This algorithm is used to confirm whether the constrained algorithm has correctly detected a person or not.
The benefit of this approach is that it reduces the hardware costs on premises, reduces the bandwidth of video sent to the cloud while maintaining the highest possible accuracy of the results.
We deployed and benchmarked the solution in the S&I facility by applying the solution to four camera feeds and counting people entering turnstiles. We measured the accuracy of the solution by monitoring the results generated by the camera and compared them to events that we were able to visually inspect. Based on these measurements our accuracy was greater than 95% based on a relatively small sample of 100 images.
Compared to a solution that shipped the encoded video to the cloud, the Edge Video System’s (EVS) split architecture transferred 22X lower data to the cloud.
EVS’s on-premise Edge usage was minimal and only CPU-based; no GPU was used on the on-premise Edge. Also, for GPU usage, our cascaded pipeline reduced the need for the heavy AI model by two-thirds.
The overall latency of the solution was a few 100s of milliseconds.
The distributed architecture that was implemented demonstrated a significant reduction in network bandwidth, a reduction of Edge hardware costs while maintaining a high degree of accuracy with low latency.
With all the initial testing and installations of the system at LGE’s buildings, S&I is ready to commercialize EVS in its building management application globally.
The demand for pro-active digital transformation (DX) continues to increase across industries, even for businesses traditionally considered to be conservative or slower at adapting, such as facility management operations. S&I Corporation is a leading building management service provider that has deployed a system enabling real-time monitoring of events at their managed locations nationwide in Korea.
This innovative solution can detect events such as intrusion, accidental falls, altercations, loitering, and even security scanning and image analysis of baggage for unauthorized items and devices. As a previous affiliate of LG Group until recently, S&I has long been pursuing implementation of a comprehensive suite, such as this, to provide solutions for the multi-faceted needs of building management and operations.
S&I Corporation collaborated with key partners including TNM, Scenera and Microsoft to launch this innovative system, built with unique architecture to handle the complex levels of distributed processing, ultimately enabling Edge-to-Cloud. The S&I Building Management Application (BMA) is now considered one of their pillars for increased business expansion that takes advantage of Microsoft Cognitive Services (AI).
Hyoung WonJoon, CEO of S&I Corporation says, “S&I is undertaking a new strategic vision to transform the company in the next five to seven years. We expect our newly developed service suite to be central to our ongoing success and aim to continue expanding its features and capabilities.”
Combining On-Premises and Edge Processing for Improved Monitoring
A typical enterprise-level building can have dozens, or even hundreds, of security cameras just on their first floor. The physical monitoring required is significant in terms of staffing and any automated on-premises monitoring of these camera fields is computationally intensive.
Lee Jong Ho, S&I CTO says about the specific challenges, “Lack of edge processing on-premises means considerable costs to handle bandwidth requirements as live feeds increase in their number of connections to the cloud. At the same time, deciding for on-premises edge computing requires a corresponding deployment of hardware to handle all the camera output.”
Essentially, the most ideal level of light processing is limited relative to traffic capacity from Edge-to-Cloud̶—a light processing algorithm is far less accurate in its results than an intensive algorithm.
The scale of staffing required for on-site facility management just for security monitoring is quite substantial. S&I covers upwards of 1,000 large-scale buildings in the Korean market. The manpower necessary to maintain all the related systems alone numbers in the hundreds.
“Almost all our customers have installed CCTVs for monitoring so there was already demand for AI-supported detection, meaning that security guards would no longer be required to provide full-time monitoring. We were waiting for quite some time to have a dependable system that could handle the required scale and complexity,” says Hyoung Won Joon, S&I CEO.
Achieving Accuracy at Scale with Cascaded Pipelines for Edge-to-Cloud
Research into possible approaches and solutions started in the field of facility management several years ago. S&I, along with many competitors, was trying to develop their own IoT technology to achieve this. At that time, S&I was introduced to Scenera through one of the company’s local partners, TNM. Scenera saw huge success in syncing and connecting AI, IoT, and 5G, demonstrating the many possibilities of integration with Microsoft Azure Cloud.
The Korean government provides certain levels of financial support for new technologies which aided in fast-tracking milestones as S&I sought to enable digital transformation for the services offered to its clients. The CEO & Co-Founder of Scenera, David Lee, is well-known in the Korean electronics industry for playing an integral role in establishing the widely-adopted protocol for HDMI technology.
The partnership developed between S&I, Scenera and Microsoft quickly investigated solving related issues, such as how to utilize the cloud and local use of bridge devices most effectively. One key factor was whether to select a closed or open solution to manage edge-based bridge devices and computing in the cloud. It became apparent that the most optimal approach was the open architecture provided by Scenera and the protocols developed by the Network of Intelligent Camera Ecosystem (NICE) Alliance.
Heo Jai Ho, S&I Product Owner says, “We realized we would be able to better implement AI and other technologies in an open development system with Scenera. From there, we were well on our way to building a solution that we could actually use and sell to our demanding multinational customers.”
One of the notable distinctions when S&I developed its application was that it could leverage existing CCTV camera systems that were already in place. Scenera was instrumental in demonstrating how to encode, store, and stream video and audio at scale with Azure Media Services. The BMA platform also utilizes Azure Stack Edge as a cloud storage gateway and enables eyes-off data transfers from this existing infrastructure. That meant customers did not have to face the hurdle of removing their existing infrastructure to replace it with newer technology.
“Scenera’s platform allows our clients to go live immediately with a consistent and scalable architecture that takes advantage of existing hardware connected to the cloud and powered by AI. This was something no other competitor could do,” says Lee Jong Ho, S&I CTO.
Seamless Realization of AI-Powered Digital Transformation
As one of the major players in the building management industry in Korea, S&I typically serviced large-scale facilities for enterprises. However, an increasing number of opportunities are expected to develop with small and mid-sized building owners. The key points of contact vary greatly from office managers, building owners, and actual tenants, along with their respective needs and requirements.
The previous points of contact at larger facilities were office managers, but with S&I shifting its focus an approach is needed more suited to building owners and tenants at smaller locations. Self-design sessions for this new category of tenant are a large part of the consultation process and S&I is now able to include in that scoping the capabilities of its management application. At the same time, S&I is able to offer both scalable data services with Azure Storage, and a level of Enterprise security to these new SMB customers as the application integrates Azure Key Vault.
A typical contract for larger buildings usually includes 50 people for cleaning and security on a 24/7 basis for 3 years. In a mid-sized or smaller building, service components must be divided into independent items rather than being provided as an entire package. Therefore, the goal with these micro-service components is to develop or repackage them as digital options whenever possible.
An example of this is janitorial service which covers 50 cleaners in a building to clean floors, toilets, and offices. However, robots have now been developed that allow 1 cleaner to cover work previously done by 7 to 12 people and that service can be bundled into a single product. Through the BMA platform, cleaning services can be ordered and managed as needed throughout the week or weekend at both larger and smaller facilities.
Heo Jai Ho, S&I Product Owner elaborated on this new approach saying, “The purpose is to allow tenants in small and medium-sized buildings to easily log onto our management platform and request specific types of services as needed. This is a very different way of selling our business and the services we provide. Thus, when available as a platform, offerings that were previously available only to the large building segment are now easily accessible by small and medium-sized businesses.”
A Solid Foundation for Regional, National and Global Growth
S&I has been able to successfully map out and achieve a phase-based approach while re-positioning its service portfolio. Phase 1 was the research and implementation of an AI-based solution for facilities management which led to the partnerships with Scenera and Microsoft and large-scale implementation of the Azure Product Suite. Phase 2 was implementation and roll-out at the wide variety of facilities owned by LG Group.
S&I has a related application called Hi Pineapple, which is currently provided to 550 tenants, and it is becoming very popular. There are now approximately 60,000 monthly users making orders and requests, such as adjusting room temperature, whether they want a room cleaned, a meeting room reserved, and even what buses can be taken to specific destinations. The capabilities of this application make it easy to eventually adapt as a broader-type of consumer-focused software and service offering. Phase 3 will see the company’ s platform services such as this provided to a wider range of small, mid-sized and larger facilities.
Hyoung WonJoon, CEO of S&I emphasized the significance of this phased approach saying, “Our transformation is ongoing and we are aiming to build out our management platform not only for ourselves but also other suppliers, players, and partners as service providers. And this is on the demand side. Building owners who want better asset management can still choose from a menu of features they need. Our tenants with small and medium-sized buildings will have access to a full range of services at the push of a button, including security, cleaning, and facility management-related services.”
S&I intends to thoroughly address potential in the Korean market first and then turn its focus to expansion overseas. With their phased approach, technology and partnerships with Scenera and Microsoft, the executive team plans to become a 700-million-dollar company in terms of sales by the 2027.
This article was published on Business Wire on October 10, 2022 (Graphic: Business Wire)
The Industry Leading Network of Intelligent Camera Ecosystem (NICE) Alliance today announces its newest adopter, S&I Corp., the leading total building solution provider, and space management expert in Korea with an unrivaled level of technology and business expertise.
The Leading FM Service Provider in Korea with State-of-the-Art Technology: Equipped with over 50 years of experience and expertise in intelligent and state-of-the-art building and factory management IT systems, S&I Corp. has provided the best of solutions and services to enterprise customers for decades and newly launches its AI and cloud-based facility management service, “atxpert (‘at’+’expert’) AI Viewer™”, which is powered by TnM Tech’s Ghost-I AI edge computing and Scenera’s NICE™ PaaS, a managed Kubernetes service built on the Microsoft Azure infrastructure.
Acceleration of Global Expansion of Advanced FM Service, Implementing NICE Platform: S&I Corp. completed its service development in 2021 and initially launched this service with LG Group, with plans to further expand this service globally. With the aim of global business expansion, S&I Corp. is implementing NICE’s open data sharing platform based on video/image and AI to enhance the synergistic effect of multi-brand, multi-camera, multi-IoT and multi-service/app features, ensuring end-to-end security and a cost-effective model.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with S&I Corp., a leading and innovative FM service provider in Korea, and welcome the company to NICE, to promote our services,” said Eita Yanagisawa, Senior General Manager of Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation and Executive Officer of NICE Licensing LLC. “As NICE’s newest adopter, S&I will prove to be a validating partner and end user that can fully take advantage of NICE’s compliant edge computing devices, especially for FM services for global markets.”
“WELSOC’s contributions set out to bring S&I Corp. the FM services in Japanese markets along with our Wi-Fi services and we’re excited to offer S&I brand services based on the NICE platform, which will power us to detect anomalies at government facilities and respectively prompt quick responses through our system. ” said Hiroshi Numamoto, President of Welsoc Inc. and NICE Adopter.
NICE Alliance continues to develop and enhance the ecosystem, which will be open for all companies and interest groups who would like to participate as NICE members.
About NICE Alliance Industry leading electronics manufacturers and brands Foxconn, Nikon, Scenera, Sony Semiconductor Solutions and Wistron formed the NICE Alliance, an innovative ecosystem standard for smart camera and AIoT markets, to provide an open data sharing platform based on image data and AI to enhance the synergistic effect of multi-brand, multi-camera and multi-service/application. https://www.nicealliance.org/
About S&I Corp. As a no.1 total building solution provider in Korea, S&I Corp. promptly detects and responds to facility management issues such as power outage, leakage, fires, and equipment abnormality through its Integrated Operational Center (IOC). Also, the company has established remote control services enabling optimal building management based on real- time monitoring data of buildings and its sites across the country. It is expected that S&I Corp.’s remote control service will be further developed with the company’s new AI-based building management system. http://www.sni.co.kr
About Welsoc A next-generation Wi-Fi provider with a vision to improve the quality of life by providing inexpensive and safe wide-area Wi-Fi services. Welsoc enables disaster monitoring and push-type notifications by linking high-speed communication networks with surveillance camera and sensors. https://www.welsoc.com/
Early on, Scenera recognized that the greatest limitation on the deployment of video cameras is rooted not in technology issues, but privacy concerns. In the same way, the majority of perspectives on IoT have been focused on devices and the related technology, but not necessarily the supporting ecosystem that makes a system truly viable in the long-term.
Scenera is a co-founder of the Network of Intelligent Camera Ecosystem (NICE) Alliance. The NICE Alliance is committed to establishing global protocols for manufacturers worldwide to align their service and enhance product development.
Founding members of the alliance include industry leading electronics manufacturers and brands such as Nikon and Sony Semiconductor Solutions in Japan, along with Wistron and Foxconn in Taiwan. Image solution providers like these can utilize the evolving protocols ready for the evolution from color-rich images to rich scene information that enables new and powerful capabilities.
At the intersection of AI, IoT, 5G and cloud, Scenera provides end-to-end orchestration from cloud to edge, enabling maximum possible use for edge processing for cost, efficiency and privacy.
Microsoft Azure Cloud was selected in 2020 to ensure that the IoT data for all partner companies is manageable, searchable, secure, and private within the scalable platform provided by Scenera.
New classes of applications and innovative standards for smart camera markets
Scenera aims to overcome the difficulties in achieving a system where no personal data is exposed, otherwise known as Zero Image Video Surveillance. To realize those goals, other necessary features include curation of Scene-based Event Capture, analysis of Structured & Organized Data, and processing with Distributed AI.
Dr. William J. Raduchel, Scenera Strategic Advisor says, “Our goal is to achieve Zero Image Video Surveillance, recognizing that the creation of these systems fully exploits the power of vision while protecting privacy by keeping the images within the camera and controlling which events are signaled by the sensor. NICE makes that possible by enabling camera sensors to effectively tell them what to do and how. People have legitimate privacy concerns when they see cameras, and we already have many laws mandating disclosure and forbidding use in some circumstances. NICE changes the game.”
NICE simplifies the process for partner companies and enables them to focus on differentiation and development of their own suites of applications for intelligent cameras and intelligent cloud services. The collaboration with Microsoft as a development partner for NICE Cloud Services incorporates Azure Media Services, Azure Storage, Azure KeyVault, Azure Cognitive Services, Azure IoT Edge, along with many other Azure services.
In recalling the considerations for pursuing development, David Lee, Scenera CEO & Co-Founder says, “The reason we started to solve this five years ago is because there was so much focus on the IoT device itself, which nowadays, is highly powered and highly capable. However, we did not really think that building directly into the hardware was the most optimal decision.”
At the same time, Microsoft and other similar platforms were all creating powerful cloud technology. However, some companies only operate in closed systems, which locks in consumers. One of the key points is that consumers locked into the end-user license agreements don’t necessarily have access to whatever information is collected, whether listened to or viewed.
Therefore, the ideal scenario is for consumers to be able to protect their data while also maximizing their choice of their devices and analytics.”
Since the start of its initiative, Scenera has been working with several Japanese companies, including Nikon and Sony Semiconductor Solutions, as a part of the NICE Alliance. In 2019, the need for a cloud service partnership became more apparent. Through a fortuitous introduction, directors from Scenera, Sony and Nikon visited and discussed development with executives at the headquarters of Microsoft in Redmond, Washington. A key individual in those discussions was involved with agile marketing as a corporate VP. He liked the story behind Scenera’s vision and that was a large part of securing a collaboration agreement with Microsoft in 2020.
Realizing edge processing with minimized costs and maximized efficiency and privacy
The end goal of the NICE Alliance is to allow participating member corporations to access cloud-to-edge operation, enabling the maximum possible leverage with edge processing and minimized costs while optimizing efficiency and privacy. Scenera provides the core solution for that intersection of AI, IoT and Cloud, with the infrastructure provided on a global scale by Microsoft Azure.
As a real-world case, faces of staff and frequent guests in an office can be uploaded while all other images are simultaneously ignored when those particular facial images are present. In terms of practical application, David says, “You could then use video surveillance to look for all anomalies without having to worry about any loss of privacy. Public cameras could look for specific faces under court order, but ignore everyone else. The opportunities are endless.”
Partners adopting the standards provided by the alliance can build their own software and devices around solid protocols, and ensure their solutions are connected to the cloud.
A robust cloud infrastructure such as Azure Cloud Services was therefore essential. As explained by David, “Hosting the necessary resources on the cloud is so much better. As we couldn’t find any other resources available, we decided to solve this problem ourselves and our search led to the partnership with Microsoft.”
One of the first client partners Scenera engaged with was S&I Corp., the company that services building and facility management for LG Electronics Group in Korea. Scenera partnered with S&I to implement its AI-based surveillance system as a smart solution for over 150 buildings including factories, retail stories and other facilities.
Microsoft and the lead team at Scenera worked together on this project extensively during the first half of 2020. The initial launch was introduced at one of the LGE facilities by the second half of 2020, and the progress in that development allowed its commercial launch in May 2021 at several additional buildings owned by LGE. Given their satisfaction with the roll-out, LGE now plans for further incorporation of the platform for their affiliated facilities throughout inside the group.
Hyungjun Son, Team Leader / INFRA Development team, S&I Corp. says, “Implementing and managing a cloud-based Al surveillance service can be very costly and time consuming. With Scenera’s Platform as a Service technology, we were able to customize our edge-to-cloud Al analytic workflow, employing various 3rd party Al models. This service enabled us to recognize the events of our interests and monitor analytic performance to improve and add new Al models. Supported by Microsoft Azure infrastructure and managed by Scenera and TnM, this system helps manage our business more cost efficiently.”
Creating a solid footprint to establish NICE Alliance’s presence among adopters and consumers, both Scenera and Microsoft are planning for additional projects including a proof-of-concept system for customer sites in Los Angeles.
One of the benefits of the Scenera solution is to enable the customer to customize the analytics for each camera and to reuse the camera for multiple different types of analytics.
Secure cloud-based service platform with global-standard key vault and encryption keys
While there were other platforms connecting cameras to the cloud, all were closed ecosystems. This meant that Scenera’s partner companies were left without any practical solutions for their own cloud solutions.
Another significant issue for partner companies was the issue of trust, whether dealing with other businesses and enterprises, or with consumers as end-users. In simple terms, there are several elements where trust – privacy and security – must be ensured as data is transferred from point-to-point. This starts with the camera, or IoT device, that generates or sends the data, along with a user at some point that wants access to that information. Next is the cloud service providing storage and processing, including AI. Finally, there are the related applications needed to handle the final data according to specific user-defined requirements.
Andrew Wajs, Scenera CTO & Co-Founder says, “We came up with a scheme to bind all these related support elements together but needed a very secure cloud-based service with corresponding security features including a key vault and encryption keys. Microsoft’s Azure Key Vault was ideal as it is already trusted and recognized globally by many in the industry. Based on that service, we were able to combine all these elements together.”
The NICE Alliance provides the necessary protocol to separate device, data, and application securities, enabling each to be managed independently while also ensuring maximized security. It was on this basis that Scenera convinced their customer base to trust the platform with their data, device, user accounts, and cloud applications. The initial background discussions with partners in the alliance distilled some of these key challenges.
“We were collaborating with companies like Nikon and Sony Semiconductor Solutions. These companies are building numerous interesting and innovative products, but their eye was on advanced sensors. In the case of Sony, they have AI sensors which are not only sensing images but running AI right on the sensor.
As part of the integration process, they tried to connect their devices to the cloud, to realize that it was not an easy or straightforward process to decide which right cloud resources to use. It’s just not that simple,” says David.
Scenera has been able to rely on the research teams at Microsoft while exploring numerous use cases with Azure Cloud. The offloading of processing between each transfer stage is something where significant customization is required to match the needs of both smaller and enterprise-scale partners in the alliance.
The Microsoft Azure Key Vault is complementary to NICE security, as it further enables secure cloud processing and management. In addition, the Azure Key Vault is fully certified in accordance with several international security standards. This elevates the NICE ecosystem to a truly global level, while maintaining security and adhering to established industry security practices.
David explained, “Although you have a standard system running, there are needs for new ways of implementing things. For example, take the recognition of an event at an on-premises location with so many subsequent events happening at the hardware level that the device cannot handle the processing. We enable “curation” from multiple cameras by configuring each data stream with custom AI models for every IOT’s unique role in gathering and detect the right events.
Scenera can efficiently move the processing workflow on-premises, essentially offloading processing to the larger capacity of a next-level server where additional computing can also be applied.
We have found the Microsoft team highly engaged in figuring out if we can move an application, or certain types of analytic processing, from one location to the other without losing any integrity. We are now able to successfully demonstrate to members of the alliance and our client partners that we can fully adjust downstream and upstream processing at all levels.
Leveraging benefits of edge computing for sustainability and public safety
Scenera is a smaller company but with the support of Microsoft in early 2022, they have joined another open-source project from Europe for CAMARA – The Telco Global API Alliance. The expectation is that this will lead to further opportunities for Scenera in a new market with an expanding range of international partners.
This style of expansion through alliance building is one that comes from previous experience with HDMI by Scenera’s leadership team. David says, “Our introduction and promotion of HDMI followed an untraditional path where we approached key content creators and Hollywood Studios that wanted to distribute digitally to provide the best entertainment experience. We embraced this direction instead of going a traditional path with TV manufacturers. Our next step was to approach large retailers and those respective distribution channels to discuss the potential for increased sales with the features from this new standard. This momentum is what encouraged hardware manufacturers to adopt the standards which we now see in so many devices including automobiles.”
Scenera has added an additional category to its objectives aligned with public safety, which is a concern for individuals, communities, and nations worldwide. One example is prevention or mitigation of natural disasters such as wildfires.
David commented, “The system we envision to handle this will be driven by consumer and public demand, which will push adoption by municipalities. There are numerous difficulties to overcome including putting AI capabilities in reach at a reasonable price, with the right type of applications that can run on advanced networks like 5G.
Overcoming emerging obstacles like this is one of the real motivations for the NICE Alliance where our partner companies and development partners like Microsoft can create incredibly compelling technology that consumers and end-users really want to use.
Azure IoT Edge by Microsoft is a toolkit that can enable the streamlined connections of such smart devices to the Microsoft Cloud. Thousands of devices are already registered for Azure IoT Edge that can also take advantage of our platform and standardized protocols.”
Another emerging category of potential client partners are energy utility companies. In numerous regions in the US, notably California, wildfires have become a significant issue with billions in damages over the years. This is a use case where cameras in public spaces such as mountains forests, ports, and power stations can be unified with an early-detection system to detect smoke or fires across a large area.
While these emerging opportunities align in many ways with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there are also accompanying privacy concerns that must be addressed. David summarized, “Scenera is very interested in contributing to better health, public safety, and the environment. We are aiming to continue in this area through our collaboration with Microsoft. At the same time, the 5G companies are also important as they will play a great role in fast-tracking event notifications and device communication.”
Scenera’s teams are located globally in India, Europe, Korea, Japan, and the US. With Azure Cloud, operations can be optimized to balance the local processing of small edge computing devices, which are on site connected to cameras and other inexpensive “always on” bridge devices, to seamlessly connect to the cloud with Azure Stack Edge.
Where the introduction of HDMI allowed consumers to enjoy a better experience through wired connections, Scenera and the NICE Alliance are aiming to realize a wireless future enabled through the air with the power of cloud computing and 5G.
Our goal is to achieve Zero Image Video Surveillance, which is realized by creation of systems that fully exploit the power of vision but protect privacy by keeping the images within the camera and controlling which events are signaled by the sensor.
Dr. William J. Raduchel: Strategic Advisor Scenera, Inc.
Hosting the necessary resources on the cloud is so much better. As we couldn’t find any other resources available, we decided to solve this problem by ourselves, and our search led to the partnership with Microsoft.
David Lee: CEO & Co-Founder Scenera, Inc.
We came up with a scheme to bind all these related support elements together but needed a very secure cloud-based service with corresponding security features including a key vault and encryption keys. Microsoft’s Azure Key Vault was ideal as it is already trusted and recognized globally by many in the industry. So based on that service, we were able to combine all these elements together. Our goal is to achieve Zero Image Video Surveillance, which is realized by creation of systems that fully exploit the power of vision but protect privacy by keeping the images within the camera and controlling which events are signaled by the sensor.
Andrew Wajs: CTO & Co-Founder Scenera, Inc.
Hosting the necessary resources on the cloud is so much better. As we couldn’t find any other resources available, we decided to solve this problem by ourselves, and our search led to the partnership with Microsoft.
David Lee: CEO & Co-Founder Scenera, Inc.
Implementing and managing a cloud-based Al surveillance service can be very costly and time consuming. With Scenera’s Platform as a Service technology, we were able to customize our edge-to-cloud Al analytic workflow, employing various 3rd party Al models. This service enabled us to recognize the events of our interests and monitor analytic performance to improve and add new Al models. Supported by Microsoft Azure infrastructure and managed by Scenera and TnM, this system helps manage our business more cost efficiently.We came up with a scheme to bind all these related support elements together but needed a very secure cloud-based service with corresponding security features including a key vault and encryption keys. Microsoft’s Azure Key Vault was ideal as it is already trusted and recognized globally by many in the industry. So based on that service, we were able to combine all these elements together. Our goal is to achieve Zero Image Video Surveillance, which is realized by creation of systems that fully exploit the power of vision but protect privacy by keeping the images within the camera and controlling which events are signaled by the sensor.
Mr. Hyungjun Son: Team Leader / INFRA Development team S&I Corp.
Open source project to address industry API interoperability leveragingGSMA OPGrequirements and Linux Foundation’s Developer Ecosystem
SAN FRANCISCO and BARCELONA, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Mobile World Congress 2022 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, and the GSMA, a global organization unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business environments and societal change, today announced a new, open source project: “CAMARA – The Telco Global API Alliance”. The global partnership will address challenges in porting and reproducing API services across heterogenous operator and cloud architectures.
CAMARA logo
CAMARA will help customer and developer ecosystems by developing an open, global, and accessible API solution with access to operator capabilities, in whatever networks customers are in, allowing applications to run consistently between telco networks and different countries. In addition, CAMARA offers new opportunities for collaboration between network and cloud companies (including telcos, ISVs, device manufacturers, etc.) to address challenges of porting and reproducing API services across heterogeneous operator architectures. This prevents fragmentation of telco and cloud developers and enables faster, more versatile advancement of global portability and broad industry adoption of new features and capabilities.
A close collaboration has been set up between the CAMARA project and the GSMA’s Operator Platform initiative that is defining a federated platform solution for exposing operator network capabilities to external applications. This collaboration will ensure that developers relying on the CAMARA project’s API solution and abstraction will facilitate users across operator networks.
“We are thrilled to enter into this next chapter of collaboration with the GSMA,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, the Linux Foundation. “By harnessing existing open source communities within CNCF, LF Networking, LF Edge and aligning to GSMA’s OPG industry requirements, we are poised to address current challenges in API accessibility.”
“The Operator Platform initiative welcomes new members to join more than 40 leading operators, and 35 ecosystem partners, already working together on requirements and APIs. This type of collaboration with CAMARA is essential in accelerating scale to meet today’s integration demands,” said Henry Calvert, head of Networks, GSMA. “We are very pleased to be working with Linux Foundation, and our membership, on developing reliability and resilience in APIs, and simplifying challenges for our developer communities.”
CAMARA is supported by leading industry organizations, including: AT&T, Capgemini, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, GSMA, Google Cloud, IBM, Intel, Kandy, KDDI, Microsoft, MobiledgeX, Nokia, Orange, NGMN, Scenera, T-Mobile US, TIM, Telefonica, TELUS, the Linux Foundation and Vodafone.
More details about the GSMA’s Operator Platform initiative (and its closely related Telco Edge Cloud activity), are also at https://www.gsma.com/operatorplatform.
About GSMA The GSMA is a global organization unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business environments and societal change. Our vision is to unlock the full power of connectivity so that people, industry, and society thrive. Representing mobile operators and organizations across the mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries, the GSMA delivers for its members across three broad pillars: Connectivity for Good, Industry Services and Solutions, and Outreach. This activity includes advancing policy, tackling today’s biggest societal challenges, underpinning the technology and interoperability that make mobile work, and providing the world’s largest platform to convene the mobile ecosystem at the MWC and M360 series of events. We invite you to find out more at gsma.com.
About the Linux Foundation Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 2,000 members and is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation’s projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit linuxfoundation.org
NICE Alliance provides the total solutions to bring advanced value to the Ecosystem. (Graphic: Business Wire)
The Industry Leading Network of Intelligent Camera Ecosystem (NICE) Alliance, formed by leading manufacturers and brands Foxconn, Nikon, Scenera, Sony Semiconductor Solutions and Wistron, will begin providing a collection of total solutions offerings to bring advanced value to its NICE services in next-generation smart cameras and IoT devices through Video/IoT data and AI technology.
Overview of NICE Total Solutions:
NICE PaaS: Cloud Platform as a Service to identify and realize NICE functionalities NICE Demo Kit: Reference camera which runs on NICE ecosystem NICE SDK: Software Development Kit for NICE compliant devices and applications NICE LA/AS: License Authority/Account Service system to manage security and privacy of IoT devices and related data NICE ATC: Authorized Test Center
Simultaneously and in partnership with Microsoft, NICE will also release its V1.1 Specification (www.nicealliance.org/specs), enhancing total AI-based security and surveillance services.
“We are thrilled to announce new adopters with the release of NICE total solutions. We believe that the combination of Sony’s sensor technology and the NICE Ecosystem will allow those who join as NICE members to provide innovative services more easily and efficiently to the world.” said Eita Yanagisawa, Senior General Manager of Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation and Executive Officer of NICE Licensing LLC.
NICE PaaS adopters are increasing:
In August 2021, S&I Corp., a total building solution provider and space management expert for LG Group with unrivaled level of technology and business expertise, has released “atxpert (‘at’+’expert’) AI ViewerTM,” a new AI building security management system based on Microsoft Azure. TnM Tech provided NICE Compliant Ghost-I AI edge computing bridge managed by Scenera’s NICE PaaS.
TMF Earth Co. Ltd and Welsoc Inc. joined NICE Alliance as adopters.
“I believe Privacy and Data security capabilities in NICE PaaS is one of the best in the world. TMF Earth will expand our H.265 AI camera systems using NICE all over the world” said Hiroshi Saito, President of TMF Earth Co. Ltd.
“In 5 years, we are planning to install Wi-Fi networks & surveillance cameras in more than 300 cities and towns in Japan. NICE PaaS is the best solution for Base-stations management and Video-data Security.” said Hiroshi Numamoto, President of Welsoc. Inc.
“Scenera’s objective is to offer a managed PaaS for customers with IoT’s with streaming video data connected to the cloud via 5G network. Among many challenges in such system, Scenera focuses on orchestrating distributed AI between the edge and the cloud while maintaining customer’s data privacy. The key features of Scenera NICE PaaS use the tools and methodologies developed from the above-mentioned projects. Scenera’s managed PaaS relies on Azure infrastructure and help its customers to maximize the edge AI computing capabilities.” said David Lee, CEO of Scenera inc.
Acceleration of Time-to-Market and Quality Improvement:
Utilizing the solutions allows NICE members to expedite the time-to-market and improve the product quality.
“Privacy and security are our major concern, only NICE certified devices are granted the access to NICE LA/AS. A concept device (NICE POC, a NICE certified device) has been developed to demonstrate how the security is managed within NICE Ecosystem. A unique key is implanted to the device which allows it to connect to NICE LA/AS. Once the device is granted the access, the video and audio will transfer the data in the format specified by NICE Specification, SceneMark and SceneData. With this device, the users can fully explore NICE ecosystem.” said Vincent Chiang, VP of Foxconn which provides NICE Demo Kit.
“As a contributor and an Authorized Test Center of NICE, Allion Labs (Allion) will offer comprehensive smart camera testing and help build a stronger NICE ecosystem. In addition to NICE programs, Allion is also accredited to certify over 30 industry standard logos, including USB, HDMI, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, to satisfy diverse needs of manufacturers in the electronics industry. Allion believes that our extended test capabilities and debugging consulting service can become a solid support for the technical development of intelligent cameras.” said Hideaki Nakayama, President & Representative Director of Allion Japan Inc.
NICE Alliance continues to develop and enhance the ecosystem, which will be open for all companies and interest groups who would like to participate as NICE members.
About NICE Alliance
Industry leading electronics manufacturers and brands Foxconn, Nikon, Scenera, Sony Semiconductor Solutions and Wistron formed the NICE Alliance, an innovative ecosystem standard for smart camera and AIoT markets, to provide an open data sharing platform based on image data and AI to enhance the synergistic effect of multi-brand, multi-camera and multi-service/application.
Global Security Lab Riscure Audits NICE’s One-Stop Device Security and Data Protection
PALO ALTO, CA (February 3rd, 2020) – NICE Alliance today released its 1.0.1 version of specifications, including key updates to expand support for non-image data produced by IoTs and support for containerized deployments of NICE applications for all types of edge devices, allowing availability of many existing IoT devices within the NICE ecosystem.
The current security practice for IoT devices is limited to a controlled encryption focus between a given IoT device and the Cloud. IoT devices, and specifically integrating image sensors, generate very sensitive video image data stored and processed in the cloud and on mobile devices. Existing solutions do not address who and what can access and process sensitive data once it has reached the cloud. Typical implementations require complex manual password management to enable multiple applications, and disabling the application requires the resetting of multiple passwords to avoid unauthorized access to devices and the data generated by devices.
Coming to the table with a practical solution, the NICE ecosystem separates device, data and application securities, enabling each to be managed independently. For example, when a user enables an application to interact with the device, the application does not have access to the user’s account or device identity and passwords. The duration of the application’s access can be time-limited without requiring the user to update their passwords. The same approach can be applied when accessing a user’s data – an application can provide time-limited access to a given subset of data without requiring the user to change their personal or device passwords. NICE implements these security provisions using online cloud license authority to (i) bind the device with unique ID and security keys at manufacturing, (ii) secure the device to a particular user when it is being registered to the user and (iii) specify user permission for each application instance maintained by NICE License Authority.
“Riscure performed an independent security review of the NICE Alliance specifications, version 1.0.1. The goal was to provide objective feedback, and recommendations regarding the security measures defined by the specification, in accordance to their predefined threat model. We believe the actions taken by NICE Alliance positively contributes to a more trustworthy ecosystem for network cameras and IoT devices” said Mr. Maarten Bron, Managing Director of Riscure, Inc.
The audit conducted by the Riscure focused on three main components of the specification:
Device access management to control the device and receive data
Data management within the cloud, including several stages of analytics
Data privacy authority, particularly for personal and private images
The foundation for the secure operation of NICE is the safe handling of keys that are used to encrypt data and control access to IoT data and devices. Microsoft Azure Key Vault is complementary to NICE security and its secure cloud process and management. Azure Key Vault is fully certified in accordance to several international security standards, elevating the NICE ecosystem to a massive scale, while maintaining security and adhering to established industry security practices.
“NICE Alliance is pleased to have qualified a security audit from industry partner Riscure and further collaborate with Microsoft to bring a world-class security and data protection system for IoT Video Intelligence Solution globally.” said David D. Lee, CEO of Scenera, which plays an integral role in spearheading the key innovations in NICE Alliance.
Matt Fleckenstein, Senior Director for Azure Product Marketing at Microsoft Corp. said, “Microsoft is pleased to be supporting NICE achieve the highest levels of security for keys supervision in the cloud in a scalable and cost-effective manner. The success of IoT deployments ultimately relies on the security of device and data being generated and Microsoft is committed to enabling its customers the highest levels of security and data protection.”
NICE Alliance continues to develop its infrastructure and establish guidelines for the ecosystem, which will be open for all companies and interest groups who would like to participate in contributing and adopting the specifications. NICE Specification V1.0.1 can be found here: www.nicealliance.org/specs.
About NICE Alliance Industry leading consumer electronics manufacturers and brands Foxconn, Nikon, Scenera, Sony Semiconductor Solutions and Wistron formed the NICE Alliance, an innovative ecosystem standard for smart camera and IoT markets, to provide an open data sharing platform based on image data and AI to enhance the synergistic effect of multi-brand, multi-camera and multi-service/apps. NICE Alliance believes that its specification will enable entire new classes of IoT applications including those where private media never leave the sensor, providing enhanced privacy and security.
About Riscure Founded in 2001, Riscure is a leading global advisor on the security of connected and IoT devices, as well as a recognized vendor of advanced security tools and security training. Riscure helps customers around the world to build robust hardware and software solutions and to speed up the process of secure development and certification. Riscure serves Semiconductor, Mobile and Electronic Payment, Automotive and Premium Content industries as well as Government sector. Riscure is headquartered in Delft, The Netherlands with offices in San Francisco, USA, and Shanghai, China. Follow Riscure on Twitter @Riscure and LinkedIn.
About Scenera Scenera is forging a new standard data platform for the IP cameras and IoT devices for efficient way to manage and analyze the data. The visionary founders see the paradigm shift from simple streaming data to rich scene information that enables new and powerful analytical capabilities. Standard compliant devices generate abundant scene-based information for surveillance and monitoring applications for business and consumer users. Scenera’s goal is to align key industry players with the same vision to create an interoperable ecosystem that will bring a new generation of the smart edge devices. For more information, please visit www.scenera.net.
Network of Intelligent Camera Ecosystem (NICE) Alliance publishes V1.0specification for manufacturing adopters and application developersand chooses Microsoft Azure for the implementation of its cloud services
PALO ALTO, CA,May23, 2019 – NICE Alliance has chosen Microsoft Azureto build NICE Cloud Services that will be offered to NICE adopters, 3rd party application and service developers, and end-users. Theimplementation of NICE Cloud Services will incorporate Microsoft’s Azure Media Services, Azure Storage, Azure Cognitive Services, Azure IoT, and many other Azure services.
“Microsoft is widely recognized as one of the most important and largest cloud providers in the world,” said David Lee, CEO of Scenera, Inc. “Azure will provide a robust platform for the development of NICE Cloud Services, which is crucial to enable the accelerated adoption of NICE compliance cameras and 3rd party apps and services to integrate IP cameras and IoT devices, aiming to transform the smart camera market.”
By building NICE Cloud Services on the Azure platform, NICE will be able to simplify the development and adaptation of a real-time distributed AI ecosystem consisting of intelligent cameras and intelligent cloud services. “Microsoft is pleased that the NICE Alliance has selected the Azure platform as the basis for realizing the NICE vision of offering real-time video analytics solutions”, said Jason Hogg, Principal PM Manager of Microsoft Azure. “NICE specifications are looking to tackle challenging concepts associated with digital cameras and the intelligent edge, with a view to simplifying application development and big data analytics associated with a live video data pipeline in multiple industries. Azure Media Services provides the ideal platform for NICE to build an implementation of that pipeline.”
Industry leading consumer electronics manufacturers and brands Foxconn, Nikon, Scenera, Sony Semiconductor Solutions, and Wistron formedthe NICE Alliance, an innovative ecosystem standard for smart camera markets, to provide an open data sharing platform based on video/image and AI to enhance the synergistic effect of multi-brand, multi-camera and multi-service/apps. NICE Alliance believes that its specification will enable entirely new classes of video applications including those where private media never leave the sensor, providing enhanced privacy and security.
NICE Alliance continues to develop its infrastructure and establish guidelines for the ecosystem, which will be open for all companies and interest groups who would like to participate in contributing and adopting the specifications. NICE Specification V1.0 can be found here: www.nicealliance.org/specs.
ABOUT SCENERA
Scenera is forging a new standard for the surveillance and IP camera market with imaging solution providers. The visionary founders see the paradigm shift from color-rich images to rich scene information that enables new and powerful capabilities. Standard compliant smart cameras generate abundant image information for surveillance applications such as object recognition and detection, location tracking, etc. Scenera’s goal is to align key industry players with the same vision to create an interoperable ecosystem that will bring a new generation of the smart camera. Scenera is a licensed and administrative agent of the NICE alliance.For more information, please visit www.scenera.net.
The greatest limitation on the deployment of video cameras is not going to be technology but concerns about privacy. People have legitimate privacy concerns when they see cameras, and we already have many laws mandating disclosure and forbidding use in some circumstances. NICE changes the game. Now we can create systems that fully exploit the power of vision but protect privacy by keeping the images within the camera and controlling which events are signaled by the sensor. Camera sensors have the power to do this, but until now there was no way to effectively tell them what to do and how.
For example, in a home you could upload the faces of family members and frequent guests and then ignore all images where those faces were present. You could then use video surveillance to look for all anomalies without having to worry about any loss of privacy. Public cameras could look for specific faces under court order but ignore everyone else. The opportunities are endless. The key is building a system based on vision which does not transmit images beyond its eyes, unless specifically instructed to do so. Today’s home cameras from Google, Amazon and others transmit all their images to their supplier under control of their respective privacy policies. We think consumers will opt to change when given the choice.
NICE creates the framework for device and software certification, and the layered architecture enables even more privacy firewalls. We look forward to the ecosystem building on this to simultaneous give us more and more valuable services while increasing privacy.
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