Industry is facing a reshuffling and overhaul amid the global economic downturn. One industry that has emerged and continues to post growth despite the broader economic retreat, however, is the smart security industry. Many have tapped it as the next star industry. ITRI on March 4 is signing a memorandum of cooperation with Telcordia Technologies, one of America's foremost telecommunications R&D companies, to help pave the way to enhance Taiwan's international competitiveness in this sector. In the future, the two sides will cooperate in the development of smart security systems, with a goal of grabbing a share of the global market for these systems.

 

ITRI President Dr. Johnsee Lee(§õÁ麳) said that the world has seen frequent acts of terrorism since the 911 terrorist attacks in 2001, and the importance of security speaks for itself. Security and protection remain a basic requirement for nations and individuals despite the weak economic climate. Take the United States for instance, Dr. Lee said. The domestic security market there grew to US$193.3 billion in 2005 from US$59.3 billion in 2002. Of this, US$67.4 billion was spent on surveillance and access control and US$65.0 billion on bio anti-terrorism systems. Meanwhile, rapid growth is also being seen in information and network security systems. It is expected that global security expenditures (not including national defense) will soar to US$518.0 billion by 2015.

 

Dr. Lee furthermore pointed out that Taiwan has long been a global hub for the production of surveillance equipment. To this point, most related items produced here have been on a contract manufacturing basis and are low added-value items. By integrating software and hardware, the industry will see a higher output value and added-value, he said. However, a high technology threshold exists in terms of producing integrated securities systems. Up to now, Taiwan has generally focused on the production of components, with small- and medium-sized firms responsible for the bulk of manufacturing. As a result, local firms have been unable to secure business for higher-end integrated systems. It is with this background that ITRI and Telcordia are embarking on cooperation. It is hoped that Telcordia's wealth of experience and technological expertise in the area of systems integration can be successfully combined with Taiwan's competitive edge in IC/ICT product design and manufacturing, thereby jointly developing smart security systems. In the future, products will carry and be internationally distributed using the Telcordia brand name.

 

ITRI's Identification and Security Technology Center (ISTC) General Director-Tarng Jenn-Hwan(­ð¾_¾È) said the cooperation between ITRI and Telcordia will focus primarily on the development of telecommunications and smart security and surveillance systems. ITRI hopes to take advantage of Telcordia's wealth of experience and technology in communications, information and systems integration. Meanwhile, ITRI will introduce operation support systems, as well as scalable, reliable and secured system software technology. The joint initiative will foster a world-class security system development platform, which will provide the foundation to develop state-of-the-art and internationally competitive smart security systems. The platform will also prove useful in integrating 'smart end points' developed by ISTC, which will aid in the development of state-of-the-art smart security and surveillance systems that are real-time and are able to act based on various scenarios. These 'smart end points' offer the ability for the devices to independently judge potential emergency events and then to react accordingly. Camera imagery will be processed in an intelligent manner by the system, thereby avoiding the transfer of large amounts of unnecessary images to the end point. Surveillance personnel with then take the appropriate action. The system will effectively reduce the amount of manpower required to monitor the system, time, and costs associated with having to transmit and store large amounts of data.