Role for small business in anti-terror fight urged


LiveWave President Peter Mottur believes his Newport-based company could play
an important role in the fight against terrorism.


Mottur recently testified before the House of Representatives Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Research and Development that his company can make "a significant contribution to the Department of Defense counter-terrorism efforts."


Teaming up with several other small businesses from across the country, LiveWave has formed an alliance that Mottur said could be called the antithesis to the "axis of evil."


The company develops proprietary digital video and camera control systems for surveillance and broadcast applications that up until recently focused primarily on monitoring traffic and weather conditions, animals at the zoo and security on a smaller level.


The product that put Mottur before the House subcommittee on March 12 is VirtualPerimeter, which revolves around LiveWave’s already commercially available products that enable live broadcast TV and broadband video distribution. LiveWave is integrating its software with other companies that manufacture sensors of other varieties to form this partnership.


In his testimony Mottur said LiveWave was "in discussions with the (Department of Energy), Argonne National Labs and Sandia National Labs about their PROTECT Program which would tie in video surveillance with data from chemical and biological sensors."


Some other available hardware types include motion, thermal, seismic, radioactive and nuclear sensors.


"Sensors are great, but without visual cues, you can get a lot of false positives," he told Providence Business News.


He said that trains sometimes set off chemical sensors in subways where they are set up, whereas with the combination of a camera and a chemical sensor, somebody monitoring the situation could see if something was truly out of place.


"It’s not realistic to think that one 11-person company from Newport, Rhode Island could solve all of these problems, but with others we could certainly build some comprehensive solutions to help address some of these problems and ensure public safety," he said.


A demonstration version of VirtualPerimeter was initiated by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority recently. MBTA Deputy Chief William Fleming said he could not disclose which line was using the system.


Mottur said after testifying before the House, the next step for LiveWave and the other companies participating in VirtualPerimeter is to develop pilot implementations of the product with military customers.


Congressman Robert E. Andrews (D-N.J.), a member of the Subcommittee on Military Research and Development, said the fact that several small businesses are working on this project is a testament to smaller corporations being able to complete tasks faster because of their independence.


"It is largely small entrepreneurial businesses that can provide the type of innovation necessary to help win the war against terrorism," he said.


The five main features of VirtualPerimeter are as follows:


Detect: With remote sensors a physical perimeter is defined. Once a sensor is activated, cameras would position to the area in question and software motion tracking would begin.


Identify: With robotic camera systems the place where a breach has occurred is tracked.


Communicate: Through secure networks the video is broadcast throughout the network.


Respond: In the event of a perimeter breach or related alarm, instant notifications can be sent to a pre-defined list of personnel.


Analyze: Video storage, search and analysis can help identify perpetrators after the fact, with enhancement tools for biometrics analysis, such as facial recognition.

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