COUNTERING terror threats in major cities, and surveillance via robot tanks and reconnaissance drones in Iraq are some of the potential applications for a revolutionary video system pioneered by Strathclyde University academics. The system is set to be showcased in the US today.
Essential Viewing, a small, venture-capitalist backed firm founded in 1999, is in Washington for the US launch of its GlobalVision GV300 video compression device, which allows for real-time covert and overt surveillance video to be transmitted via satellite or mobile phone networks.
At an event in the US capital, EV will demonstrate the new offering before an audience that will include officials from the US department of homeland security, the Pentagon, the Federal emergency management agency, as well as law enforcement agencies, high-ranking military personnel and a mix of commercial companies.
The Glasgow-based company - founded by Strathclyde video compression researchers Richard Fryer, Robert Lambert, David Breslin and Paul Devlin - said it had begun selling the software last year, and that it already counted the Seals, the special operations force of the US Navy, among its customers.
Now the company has added a hardware device to the offering, a small box that relays the images almost instantaneously.
The product is being launched with US distribution partner Globalstar.
The system works by making electronic sketches of the video images, rather than transmitting them pixel by pixel.
During the demonstration, the US audience will be treated to live, real-time footage of traffic on the M8 motorway.
Stewart Wallace, EV's chief executive who was brought in sixmonths ago by venture capitalists Aberdeen Murray Johnstone and Scottish Equity Partners, said: "The real advantage of GV300 is that it operates via satellite on extremely low bandwidth, but will transmit high-quality video with very little time delay.
"The surveillance advantages are enormous in situations where there is no broadband or in emergencies, such as the flooding in New Orleans, when mobile phone networks go down, but there are real applications for reconnaissance drones or sending video from helicopters, for example.
"We are targeting the US agencies, such as the Pentagon, FEMA and the law enforcement agencies, because they are the ones with big budgets.
"The state of NewYork has already shown an interest because of the events of 9/11, as has the Pentagon and a number of police forces."
Essential Viewing, which is part-owned by Strathclyde University, has to date received around GBP3.5m in VC funds.
