Month: September 2018

The key of the future is digital, and it offers more features than its analog predecessors – impossible to lose or steal, and there is never a need to search for it. That is because it is stored securely and specifically for each user in a smartphone app. “Our Perfectly Keyless app is making conventional vehicle keys a thing of the past. Bosch is taking the car key into the digital realm and making it available anywhere, anytime,” says Harald Kröger, President of the Bosch Automotive Electronics division. With Perfectly Keyless, the smartphone replaces the analog vehicle key. This concept can offer owners of private vehicles increased convenience, but where it really shines is in vehicle fleets with multiple drivers. No more key handovers – fleet managers and logistics providers simply use the app to give drivers access to the vehicles. “Bosch’s digital vehicle key gives fleets a boost towards greater connectivity,” Kröger says. The company believes there is a huge market for its solution, which is making its world debut at the IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hannover. The potential customers include some 15,000 logistics providers in Germany alone. Most of them manage at least a dozen vehicles and drivers. A keyless journey Row upon row of hundreds of keys hanging on large boards – logistics providers still often use this method to organize the keys to their fleet vehicles. A missing key triggers a massive search operation. But every minute counts, especially with commercial vehicles. After all, if a truck isn’t moving, it’s not making any money. At the core of the new system is an app that dispatchers and truck drivers both have on their phones. This makes it possible to grant vehicle access with just a few clicks. In the future, the Bosch solution will also allow logistics providers to completely integrate digital key management into their dispatch and scheduling systems. As soon as dispatch is assigned drivers and trucks to a route, the system automatically generates digital keys for the vehicles and sends them to the drivers’ smartphones. If the route scheduling changes, the software adjusts the keys accordingly. “Thanks to Bosch’s fully digital key management, logistics providers enjoy both security and flexibility in their planning. This is the only way the logistics of the future will be able to function efficiently,” Kröger says. Secure key management with app and cloud Bosch digital key management connects trucks and the smartphone app via the cloud. Dispatchers or fleet managers use the app to assign a truck to a driver for a particular route. Perfectly Keyless generates a personal, secure digital key and sends it via the cloud to the truck and to the driver’s smartphone. As the driver approaches the assigned truck, the sensors installed in the truck detect the smartphone via a wireless connection. The vehicle doors will open only if the key on the phone ‘fits’ the digital lock in the vehicle. These sensors can also tell when the driver is in the driver’s seat, and the engine starts up as soon as the driver presses the start-stop button. When the driver gets out of the car at the end of the journey, the system detects this and automatically locks the doors. Battery dead – No problem But what happens if the smartphone’s battery dies, or the device has gone missing? In the future, the vehicle key in the smartphone will work even if the phone battery is dead. In that case, the phone and truck will communicate using near-field communication (NFC), a wireless protocol for sharing data over short distances. Bosch plans to make it the ‘double hull’ of its solution. If the smartphone is lost or stolen, and the app with it, the digital key can be simply deactivated online, thus blocking access to the vehicle. It cannot be opened and started until the fleet manager uses the app to provide another driver or a new phone with access to the truck.

Dahua Technology’s state-of-the-art facial recognition solution enhances safety and business intelligence for its users. In real life a person rarely wants to be seen as someone other than himself. The misrecognition problem is not only time consuming, dignity compromising, but also life threatening in lots of cases where certain dangerous people are not correctly identified in time. This mistake is no longer affordable to make in today’s context, whether for an individual, a group, or the society as a whole. Fortunately the facial recognition technology has matured and the security solution based on the technology is being widely used across the world. Dahua Technology is especially good in this realm and it has been proved by multiple championships and new records made in major international challenges including multiple object tracking challenge, the KITTI 2D object detection evaluation 2012, KITTI flow benchmark, Task [word recognition] of incidental scene text challenge and Born-digital image challenge. It is necessary to explain some basic rules concerning how facial recognition works before the tour to see how Dahua Technology’s products & solutions are applied in various daily scenes. Simply put, big data is useless if the accuracy and efficiency of facial recognition has not been improved to certain levels. The face detection, whether from a snapshot or from a stream of video, requires not only a high-quality camera but more importantly, a smart AI algorithm that optimizes the image captured in multiple angles or blurred in motion, and translates the face feature into digital model which can be crosschecked in the database. The whole process, from taking the picture to comparison, takes as short as 300ms. Suppose there is a Tom, a middle level manager in his mid-30s. Let’s follow Tom for a day and see how Dahua Technology’s facial recognition solution plays its role in his perfectly ordinary life. Tom vs. access control Tom hurried to his company on the 30th floor of a class A office building, the kind with additional barriers in the lobby between the front gate and elevators. There were long lines in front of the access control machines. Tom reached into his pocket and unfortunately found his access card wasn’t there. But Tom should not worry anymore because the building had just updated the security system with Dahua facial recognition solution, which overcame various shortcomings of traditional ways of card or fingerprint scanning including low efficiency and inadequate security. Comparing to a card, apparently it is much less likely for one to lose/ replicate/ borrow a face. The access control was no longer a gamble if one’s fingerprint works. Here is how exactly Dahua facial recognition solution works in this scene. The powerful cameras blessed with deep learning AI detect the faces and digitalize the features, and compare them purely through numbers with the ones in database which takes less than 1 second. The beauty of the solu tion goes both ways since the company no longer needs to make a card or import finger prints for the newly employed but simply upload their photos into the database that contains up to 10,000 faces. Besides offices, this solution can also be applied to any place that has a high standard for access control like customs, schools, residential communities etc. Tom on the white list Tom stepped into a bank. On behalf of his company, Tom had some serious business to discuss with the bank, which, at this hour, was full of people. Before Tom started to worry about the time to be spent waiting and if he could make it to the next meeting on time, he heard his last name called and was led into the VIP room. Now how did the bank manage to do that? Not by human efforts for sure. No clerk could remember each and every face and match it with a particular name and particular business without making any mistake. That’s why facial recognition solution is essential to the business. The immediate detection of a VIP face could be easily matched with the white list in database – no delay or misidentification and all VIP treatment. This goes not only for banks. Hotels, hospitals and casinos alike will also benefit from this solution that secures the proper respect those exceptional customers deserve. Tom unauthorized Tom went to the vault of the bank for the first time in his life. He was happy that now he was trusted by the company with such important mission. He walked fast and went in front of the escort. But before he could raise his hand to touch the door of vault, a warning siren was triggered. The escort, with a reassuring smile, caught up and patted on Tom’s shoulder and explained the whole situation to him. No unauthorized personnel, be it Tom or Jerry, could intrude the sensitive areas blessed with Dahua facial recognition solution. The face captured and automatically optimized by the camera would be put into real time comparison with the authorized faces in data base and the low percentage of similarity, from a pure mathematical point of view, would immediately trigger the alarm. Other limited access areas like labs and archives will also enjoy better protection with facial recognition solution. Tom and the black list After a long day’s work, Tom went to see a football game with a friend. The show began even before they entered the stadium because they saw an infamous football hooligan got rejected and taken away outside the entrance gate. Tom, who have been through plenty of adventures during the day figured out what had happened. Tom’s friend, who happened to be an employee of Dahua Technology, took the chance to explain how Dahua facial recognition solution informed the security force to deal with any persona non grata on the black list as soon as they showed their faces. Of course, this solution could be widely applied to other areas like airports, train stations, or in other words, city management. So, this was a day in Tom’s life,…

NETGEAR Inc., has introduced NETGEAR Orbi RBK20 Wi-Fi Router and Satellite that delivers unparalleled Wi-Fi coverage. It covers homes up to 4,000 square feet with strong Wi-Fi signals, and the innovative Tri-band WiFi helps maximize the Internet speeds available at home. Orbi RBK20 has a unique, industry-first tri-band architecture with a dedicated 5GHz wireless connection between the router and satellite, which provides both reliable Wi-Fi coverage and maximum internet speed throughout the home with a single network name. The new Orbi systems deliver industry leading 802.11ac AC2200 Wi-Fi speeds up to 2.2Gbps. “Wi-Fi is now considered to be a necessity for every household. People are not expected to be contended with a wireless network that does not deliver the required coverage and performance. With the introduction of new Orbi RBK20 Tri-band WiFi systems, we aim to provide a broader range of Wi-Fi solutions with maximum Internet speed,” comments Marthesh Nagendra, Country Manager – India & SAARC, NETGEAR. With the increase in demand for better Wi-Fi throughout home, the Orbi RBK20 addresses a broad range of home environments, from apartments to sprawling estates. The 2.2Gbps WiFi is enhanced by FastLane3, and the coverage increased by four high-gain internal antennas. It has dedicated TriBand Wi-Fi and works on a single network name.

When it comes to delivering networks to support smart buildings and applications like CCTV, IPTV and Internet service delivery, there is no doubt that the near-limitless bandwidth of optical fiber is of benefit. What is less clear is whether an active, or passive technology is better. In reality, it depends on many factors including the environment, applications being used and who is going to manage or operate the infrastructure. Let’s look at this in a little more detail. History and background Active Ethernet or point to point Ethernet has been used extensively in a broad range of applications and environments for many years from the early days of 10Base2 to the current Ethernet technologies that utilize copper or optical fiber to deliver 1G, 10G and beyond. In order to deliver next generation services to consumers or subscribers, the aging twisted pair infrastructure that had been used for many years was simply not capable of meeting the bandwidth requirements of services like HDTV. Optical fiber with its near limitless bandwidth was therefore an easy choice. Using an active or point-to-point technology, however, would have seen thousands to tens of thousands of strands of optical fiber required from the exchange. Alternately, it would have been necessary to have active equipment in the field from where optical fiber had aggregated. Neither of these options was particularly suitable so an alternative technology known as Passive Optical Networks (PON) was developed. PON had the benefit of using small counts of optical fiber from the exchange and then branching out to deliver services to subscribers with passive splitters overcoming the limitations of active Ethernet for this application. Application and use There is no question that in a ‘broadacre’ environment – one covering large distances – PON has many benefits for the delivery of consumer services. These benefits, however, are questionable when it comes to delivering services in other environments such as buildings, commercial buildings or hospitality environments. Today the benefits of a single converged network to support all applications within a facility are better understood. The simplicity of managing one set of infrastructure, flexibility to add additional services, and lower total cost of ownership are now being seen by organizations that head down this path. With 20% of commercial buildings predicted to be smart or intelligent by 2020, this trend will only increase. The requirements of services that leverage a converged network are quite different to those of the consumer services seen in ‘broadacre’ environments. Services regularly deployed within commercial buildings include telephony, CCTV, signage, wayfinding, wireless, access control, BMS/ HVAC and lighting. These applications often require Powerover-Ethernet (PoE) to power the endpoint, multicast support to manage the distribution of content, symmetric bandwidth to support content moving in both directions, and a high degree of redundancy due to the critical nature of some services. These are inherent within active Ethernet networks but are not typical of passive networks. Technology aside, another factor to consider is ownership and operation of the network. Passive networks are typically deployed by a carrier or service provider who then takes complete responsibility for the infrastructure and service delivery. When adds, moves or changes are required, this is undertaken by the organization responsible. This is ideal for the delivery of services such as voice, data and telephony to consumers but is less than ideal for building services. Within commercial buildings there is often a need for the facility owner or manager to reconfigure the network to support new services or add new endpoints. This level of flexibility is simply not available when the network is operated or managed by a carrier or service provider and would generally incur additional costs. This would not occur with an active network that is managed by the facility. Summary So, when it comes to deploying optical fiber to support services, it is not simply a case of an active topology being better than a passive topology or vice versa. Consideration needs to be given to the environment and applications before a choice is made based on the requirements. In some cases, both can co-exist – a passive topology to deliver consumer services to residents which would be managed by a carrier, and an active topology for building services that would be managed by the facility.  By – Scott Penno Regional Marketing Manager, APAC, Allied Telesis  

Cost of a server is one of the major concerns while considering a multi-location video surveillance solution. Moreover, it is complex to operate a server from a central location while monitoring different locations. Matrix video surveillance solution has a special feature called Cascading, which eliminates the need of a server for centralized management and monitoring. Cascading is a feature of adding multiple devices on a single network in a user interface (UI) so that all devices can be accessed from one location. This is done by configuring one of the SATATYA devices as master device and the rest as slave devices. Cascading is configured in the monitor connected locally with the device, as well as in the Matrix SATATYA Device Client when the devices are connected on the same network. Network video recorders can cascade up to 20 devices and can receive their camera streams without the need of a server. The master NVR at the central location can receive streams from all the cameras installed at various locations. It follows the architecture of multiple masters and multiple slaves. Hence, one organization can make several master NVRs, sharing their respective camera streams among themselves. For example, a company having two CEOs at dif ferent locations can have access to all camera streams of their branches using their local NVR. Cameras are categorized into three different types in accordance to their configuration in Matrix network video recorders:  Branded cameras: The brand and model names of these devices are available in SATATAYA NVR database.  ONVIF supported cameras: Open Network Video Interface Forum defines a common protocol for exchange   of information like automatic device discovery, video streaming and intelligent metadata between network   video devices.  Generic cameras: These cameras stream the video on specific HTTP or RTSP URL. What are the Benefits? Cascading totally eliminates the cost of a server for centralized management and monitoring. There is no need to enter credentials and other settings every time the user restarts. It simplifies monitoring by grouping important cameras from different locations on a single screen. If the number of cameras is higher, it also allows sequencing of cameras. Applications Monitoring a building with multifloors. Monitoring multiple buildings with multiple floors. Monitoring multiple buildings at a single location. Monitoring multiple buildings at multiple locations. Monitoring multiple buildings with multiple central locations. Monitoring multiple buildings with a single central location.