In December of last year, Amazon.com made headlines when the company announced plans to develop a drone to deliver small packages within small geographic areas in under 30 minutes.
At the same time, other stories appeared that described robot technology designed specifically for security applications. One example is the Knightscope Inc K5, a five-foot tall, 300lb bowling pin whose makers describe as an “Autonomous Data Machine”.
Among its many features, the K5 has a 360 degree camera, a night-vision camera, Optical Character Recognition (The ability to read license plates), Behavioral Analysis software and the ability to detect biological, radiation and chemical elements within its environment. While the K5 and offerings from its competitors; the Robotex Avatar lll and Mobilerobots’ Patrolbot, are far from the bipedal humanoid of science fiction, these devices represent what lies directly ahead in today’s world of security technology.
Now of course, one cannot say "Security Robot" without acknowledging concerns about privacy and job elimination. In my view the robots headed our way are no more ominous than all of the other cameras and sensors that capture our movements every day. Another feed of telemetry gathered about our not-so private lives, to me, is not going to reveal much more than is known about each of us already. In terms of jobs, I do not see the coming generation of robots as a threat to the relevance of private security guards. The purpose and abilities of the machines are matched to roles that augment, rather than replace, human security forces. In other words a more a capable K9 and without the bite.
From my perspective as a security contractor I see the technology as a good thing. For one, the robots will perform the most mundane of security assignments and relieve human guards to complete other tasks. For example, a group of robots can be deployed in a condominium to provide continuous coverage of the gated parking garages and leave the human guard to handle noise complaints, after-hours pool use, and all of the other issues that can require the complex social skills that are unique to humans. If the robots in the garage do happen to detect suspicious activity, that data can be relayed directly to the guard’s smartphone with streaming video and audio. The guard can evaluate the data from a safe location and decide if police are to be notified.
Safety and efficiency will be the strongest assets that robotic technology brings to the private security industry.
DW
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
COMMUNITY ROBOTS
In December of last year, Amazon.com made headlines when the company announced plans to develop a drone to deliver small packages within small geographic areas in under 30 minutes.
At the same time, other stories appeared that described robot technology designed specifically for security applications. One example is the Knightscope Inc K5, a five-foot tall, 300lb bowling pin whose makers describe as an “Autonomous Data Machine”.
Among its many features, the K5 has a 360 degree camera, a night-vision camera, Optical Character Recognition (The ability to read license plates), Behavioral Analysis software and the ability to detect biological, radiation and chemical elements within its environment. While the K5 and offerings from its competitors; the Robotex Avatar lll and Mobilerobots’ Patrolbot, are far from the bipedal humanoid of science fiction, these devices represent what lies directly ahead in today’s world of security technology.
Now of course, one cannot say "Security Robot" without acknowledging concerns about privacy and job elimination. In my view the robots headed our way are no more ominous than all of the other cameras and sensors that capture our movements every day. Another feed of telemetry gathered about our not-so private lives, to me, is not going to reveal much more than is known about each of us already. In terms of jobs, I do not see the coming generation of robots as a threat to the relevance of private security guards. The purpose and abilities of the machines are matched to roles that augment, rather than replace, human security forces. In other words a more a capable K9 and without the bite.
From my perspective as a security contractor I see the technology as a good thing. For one, the robots will perform the most mundane of security assignments and relieve human guards to complete other tasks. For example, a group of robots can be deployed in a condominium to provide continuous coverage of the gated parking garages and leave the human guard to handle noise complaints, after-hours pool use, and all of the other issues that can require the complex social skills that are unique to humans. If the robots in the garage do happen to detect suspicious activity, that data can be relayed directly to the guard’s smartphone with streaming video and audio. The guard can evaluate the data from a safe location and decide if police are to be notified.
Safety and efficiency will be the strongest assets that robotic technology brings to the private security industry.
DW
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