Are you a video analytics startup looking at innovations in the smart city space? T-Hub and Deal flow - in partnership with United Technologies Corporation (UTC) is organizing a Smart City/Smart Building NanoAccelerator program for startups that work on video analytics solutions.
UTC’s Climate Controls and Security and Otis divisions will work closely with the shortlisted startups. UTC ‘s focus is very niche – it is looking for startups with differentiable, scalable software, which runs on low cost general purpose hardware and provides seamless actionable intelligence data with minimal human intervention.
The idea of the program is for UTC to enhance its integrated platform with a reliable and efficient video analytics software and embedded intelligence, through open innovation frameworks.
The solution UTC is looking for will be a seamless video solution that will include video intelligence at the camera (edge), video intelligence shared by a ‘local mesh’ of cameras with minimal human intervention.
The solution should be able to analyse or construct a situation with greater detail and reliability with the intelligence gathered.
UTC is seeking solutions in the area of commercial and enterprise market segments.
“In many situations, the solutions that minimize specialized configurations and which eliminate privacy concerns will be preferred. Solutions that integrate with other ubiquitous information (like social media) to improve the accuracy and reliability of the data or to extend the capabilities of the system, will be preferred,” the call for application mentions.
The idea is for solutions to be set up in commercial areas like banking, shops and malls with typically 4-100 cameras so as to be able to recognize abnormal or suspicious activity. In an enterprise set up, solutions could be deployed at places like airports to track any unexpected event to raise alerts or awareness to security personnel in real time
The analytics, UTC says, should be able to intelligently detect intrusion and classify objects, both indoor and outdoor. Some of the features include that it should be able to automatically detect people at, say, parking entrances and exits. It should be able to count people, vehicles, and objects and recognize license plates. Static objects like a luggage left behind, abandoned luggage should be recognized. Being able to further classify into subtypes like male or female, car or truck would be a plus point, says UTC.
Who can apply?
In startups that work on video analytics solutions, each team must have at least one full time employee. The product or technology the team is offering should have a functionality or capability that is not currently available in any off the shelf product or has a significant advantage over current offerings in some aspect. The ideas should be original, wholly owned with freedom to use or is licensed by the team.
What’s in it for startups?
The selected startup will get to work and scale up under the aegis of UTC. The top 5-6 shortlisted startups will work with UTC technology leaders / mentors, to collaborate and prioritize the solution at Hyderabad.
The startups will be able to develop a proof of concept (POC) and showcase it to key executives of UTC during the ‘Demo Day’ at T-Hub. Up to two POCs will receive a funding of a maximum of $25,000.
The program will be at T-Hub and will begin on September 14, 2017. The final demo day will on October 25. However, applications close on August 20.
This article has been produced with inputs from T-Hub as a part of a partner program.