Archerfish ready to provide 'mobile video intelligence' with security camera network

December 3, 11:46 AMTechnology News ExaminerDarrell Proctor

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Technology News Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Being able to keep an eye on your home, your beach house, your mountain retreat - and your kids when the babysitter comes over - is something folks can do now, but it often involves setting up lots of cameras and then figuring out how to keep your eyes on all of them.

That's where Archerfish comes in. It's confident its system - what it calls a "mobile video intelligence solution" - is what small business owners and high-end residential customers will covet.

The Consumer Electronics Association already has named Archerfish, developed by Reston, Va.-based Cernium Corp., as one of its 2009 Innovations Design and Engineering Award winners in the Integrated Home Systems product category. Archerfish will be featured at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in January in Las Vegas.

Cernium CEO Craig Chambers said Archerfish is available in beta today and will be formally announced at CES.

"It's a new capability to allow people to manage their lives (via video)," said Chambers. "People have used nanny cams and Web cams, but this is a way for people to use video in ways they haven't in the past. It's a way to put some intelligence behind those cameras."

The Archerfish system allows users to determine where they want cameras, and what information they want delivered to them from those cameras. Archerfish monitors video for its users and then alerts users to situations that could require their attention. The alerts can come via text or picture messages or video link to a computer or Web-enabled smartphone.

You can see the technology in use at YouTube or blip.tv.

Chambers said Archerfish will begin shipping equipment in February. He said a monthly subscription is expected to cost $20 per device, with up to four cameras available for connection to an individual device. Cost of the cameras and other equipment will depend on how and where consumers purchase it; Chambers likened it to buying a cell phone, a purchase that often comes at a reduced price depending on the retailer and the package purchased.