ORCHESTRATING THE DIGITAL DATA FLOW

OSSA ORGANIZATIONS SPECIFIED HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE CONDITIONS TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO RUN THIRD-PARTY (AI) ANALYTICS APPLICATIONS SECURELY ON EXISTING, BRAND-AGNOSTIC COMPUTER VISION DEVICES (STARTING WITH CAMERAS). WORKING TOGETHER SPURRED A HANDFUL OF SPECIFICATIONS FOR BUILDING COMMON COMPONENTS THAT CAN BE UTILIZED JOINTLY.

EK – and together are determined to continue bringing forth an open, data-driven ecosystem.

ket as a whole so that there will be headspace to grow for all participants.

Open Security & Safety Alliance (OSSA) is a collaborative initiative focused on creating a framework for standards and specifications in the security, safety, and building automation space. As an industry alliance, OSSA has a good idea of what’s in the works by its members when it comes to innovating across important areas within security, safety and beyond. OSSA representatives hail from some of the most influential companies in this space – such as Bosch, Hanwha Techwin, Milestone Systems and VIVOT-

The IoT is all about connecting things to make life easier, more intelligent, more intuitive, and more productive. OSSA workgroups have projects underway that are primed to unify and elevate the mar-

Already, OSSA organizations specified hardware and software conditions to make it possible to run third-party (AI) analytics applications securely on existing, brand-agnostic computer vision devices (starting with cameras). Working together spurred a handful of specifications for building common components (e.g., for core system requirements, cyber security directions, and application interface APIs) that can be utilized jointly.

Now, a notable future trend our members are funneling expertise into is bringing about new levels of data and information sharing to all we do when it comes to smart cameras and related IoT devices. How can we achieve nextlevel dissemination of extremely valuable data flows sensed by products that collect data in their brand-specific siloes? How do we establish open but secure pathways to easily share and uniformly interpret data to connect the dots when it comes to surveillance and activities being captured and contained on edge-computing devices?

Millions of “things” generate, accumulate, and house heaps of factual insights that – unfortunately all too often – remain untapped and stagnant once recorded. If corralled, connected, and optionally given an artificial intelligence/

Imagine harnessing content from a camera that captures a car and applies its license plate app to read the details. This car crosses in front of the building, and minutes later another camera across the facility records an individual scaling a fence in the vicinity where the car was last detected. Finally, a third camera on the opposite side of the building records an individual onsite in an unauthorized area, and an open platform app detects a gun in hand. The system immediately then alerts security personnel about a potential threat. Tying this crucial information together seamlessly across a natural path of data flowing from security and safety devices takes us to a new frontier delivering not only what’s “seen” but more importantly what’s “sensed.” This is the future if device manufacturers and other stakeholders participate in an industry-driven ecosystem.

ML scrub, this information brings a bigger picture of what transpired across, for example, surveillance systems. Taking frames or moments from various devices and drawing relationships between them to form a cohesive “data flow” opens up a massive new corridor of IoT-based possibilities.

OSSA members are working on a set of generic, vendor-neutral data Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to enable this type of uniform consumption and data interpretation across cameras or computer vision gateways in adherence with OSSA standards. It is also designed to apply across other device types within the IoT security and safety domain to provide a loose coupling between any pair of send/receive applications that collect, digest, and interpret data. Enabling content from various brands and device types to be interpreted in an open forum brings newfound levels of storytelling and safety to our security situations. Coupled with the progress that continues around allowing for easy integration of third-party AI analytics applications on “Driven by OSSA” video cameras and gateways in an agnostic fashion, OSSA facilitates cooperation on many levels. There’s a front-row seat for anyone interested in expanding this collaboration framework to together lift our industry to new levels of openness, innovation, interoperability, and success. n