Surveillance camera video synopsis start-up BriefCam Ltd. has secured a first round of funding totaling $2.6 million.
The funding round was led by Aviv Venture Capital and a group of private investors, included many from the closed-captioned TV (CCTV) surveillance industry. They were joined by additional investors in Israel.
The funding is largely being allocated for expanding sales and marketing efforts.
Neve Ilan-based BriefCam launched its first-of-its-kind technology this year. The technology allows for one day of surveillance camera footage to be summarized into as little as a few minutes, enabling the rapid review and indexing of captured video.
BriefCam’s video synopsis provides a summarized video clip of the original full-length video footage. The synopsis is made possible by presenting concurrently multiple objects and activities that have occurred at different times.
An increasing number of cities use CCTV cameras as a basic element of their security management. Thousands of these cameras are constantly recorded in order to document a variety of crimes and other incidents. However, when evidence for a specific event is required for investigation purposes, as well as during real-time event management, the time and manpower needed for browsing the captured video is rarely possible. Using BriefCam video synopsis, the CCTV operator is able to identify a street fight or any other event which occurred during a time frame of many hours, within a few minutes. Yoav Chelouche, Managing Partner at Aviv Venture Capital, commented: "We are thrilled to lead this round and invest in an outstanding company such as BriefCam." Chelouche added that Aviv has been observing the CCTV surveillance market and its potential, and was impressed with BriefCam, saying, "Especially in difficult economic times, BriefCam’s surveillance technology will allow companies large and small to maximize security, while saving on manpower, time and money.”
The video synopsis technology was developed by BriefCam co-founder and chief scientist Prof. Shmuel Peleg at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and was coordinated with the Yissum Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The other co-founders of BriefCam are VP R&D Dr. Yaron Caspi and chairman Gideon Ben-Zvi.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 25, 2009
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