Newcastle surveillance tech firm partners with Google to launch new data product

The world’s first Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) platform, Ocucon is to launch a new video pixelation service with Google.

Developed in partnership with the global search engine, Ocucon Pixelate is taking artificial intelligence to deliver the first of its kind, video redaction tool for General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance.

Suitable for all forms of camera footage including body cameras, the web-based software uniquely enables users to select the faces they wish to pixelate.

Ocucon’s co-founder, Gary Trotter, commented: “With the introduction of GDPR, the penalties for organisations who reveal identifying data - whether intentionally or inadvertently - are set to increase significantly.

“[This includes] fines of up to €20m or four per cent of annual global turnover. Images or clips of footage from CCTV footage can reveal large amounts of personal data, from credit card numbers to car number plates.

“Whereas existing redaction services can prove very costly or unreliable, Ocucon’s Pixelate product is the first of its kind - utilising artificial intelligence and genuine machine learning - to provide intelligent cost effective, cloud-based video redaction.

Existing video redaction software, that manually redacts images, can prove extremely costly and time intensive. GDPR is being introduced next month, so the need for video redaction software could drastically increase as organisations seek to abide by tougher restrictions on how they process and store identifying personal data.

Users of Pixelate should be able to upload CCTV footage to Ocucon’s web-based portal and download redacted files in ‘a matter of minutes’.