BRS Labs awarded patent, $2m deal

HOUSTON—A new patent and a just-closed $2 million deal with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is proof that BRS Labs is doing something “truly unique” that the marketplace will value, John Frazzini, president of BRS Labs, told Security Systems News.

BRS Labs on March 6 received an umbrella patent for its “artificial intelligence technology” on which the company's behavioral analytics product AISight solutions is based. This is the eighth patent issued to BRS Labs of 60 related patents that are pending or in process, Frazzini said.

A source who is involved in the deal confirmed that BRS Labs just closed a deal with San Francisco MTA to supply behavioral recognition systems for 12 San Francisco MTA train stations. The deal, this source said, will exceed $2 million.

The new umbrella patent “draws a line in the sand” that shows what BRS Labs does is “truly unique and distinctive software,” Frazzini said.

Up until this point, others could “claim that they do what we do … that they have the technology that BRS has,” but not anymore, he added.

According to public bid documents, the San Francisco MTA system must be able to be deployed on up to 22 cameras per location. The system must “autonomously learn the behavioral activity captured by the cameras and issue video clip alerts related to unusual behavioral activities or patterns identified” without the use of a VMS. It needs to be capable of tracking up to 150 objects and activities continuously, form “memory modules on the activity … and process the video imagery data similar to the cognitive process of the human brain.”

The system needs reporting and assessment capabilities and must integrate with all future surveillance DVRS, cameras, PSIMs, etc. The price tag includes installation of the system and “an enhanced five-year service and support program.”

Frazzini said he believes the video surveillance industry “has been stagnant for two decades [with] … very few truly innovative patents issued.” He called BRS' new patent an “important milestone for us and for the industry.”

“The fact that we've invented a new technology, been issued a patent and that the marketplace is using it … means the industry is moving forward,” he said.

Does BRS Labs anticipate a situation similar to video analytics provider Object Video, which filed a number of lawsuits alleging patent infringement and has subsequently licensed its software to a number of manufacturers?

Frazzini said he couldn't comment on Object Video's experience in the marketplace and emphasized that there is “no overlap” in technology between BRS Labs' behavioral analytics and others' video analytics products. Frazzini said he supports efforts to protect IP, saying that “protecting intellectual property is important to American innovation. It's what gives technical entrepreneurs the confidence to innovate.”

Frazzini has previously told SSN that the company has several deals in the works that will be closed and made public in the near future. Public procurement documents show that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is working on a pilot project of BRS' technology at the new World Trade Center complex. Frazzini declined comment on the company's involvement at the World Trade Center.