TECHVIBES SHOW I Future is about speed, capacity, broadband mobility, audience told
GILLIAN SHAW
Sun
GLENN BAGLO/VANCOUVER SUN David Neale, vice-president of service development for Rogers Communications Inc., tells audience at TechVibes Technology Show at Science World Tuesday that the Internet future is all about speed and capacity.
Avoiding traffic jams took a high-tech twist Tuesday with the launch of a new service that will deliver a bird’seye view of Vancouver intersections straight to your cellphone or mobile device.
The free service delivers video images updated every three minutes from 30 traffic cameras around Vancouver. It’s the brainchild of a group of former Motorola cellphone experts who have turned their talents into a new company, Inception Software Technology Inc. to make remote video surveillance mobile.
Fittingly, the company debuted its offering at Techvibes Massive Technology show and conference in Vancouver, where 175 exhibitors were giving credence to keynote speaker David Neale of Rogers Communications, whose message was that IP — Internet protocol — is everywhere.
“It’s all about speed, it’s about capacity, it’s about faster services,” Neale, Rogers’s vicepresident of service development, told delegates. “It is about having broadband mobility wherever you go.”
From the wireless service provider FatPort’s BizSpot service launched at the show Tuesday to transform offices into wireless hubs, to outdoor enthusiast Scott Burchett’s solar powered backpacks that can recharge iPods and cellphones on the remotest mountain peaks, Techvibes was all about a wired and wireless world of Internet access.
Inception Software’s newly launched CelVu.com is focused on the corporate security surveillance market with starter kits that include wireless cameras, a network video recorder and a year of service retailing for close to $3,000.
While security surveillance is the company’s commercial focus, president Chris Scholefield said the mobile traffic monitoring service was launched to raise awareness of the technology.
“Our intention is that before people set out, they can use their cellphone to check traffic congestion,” he said, pulling up a screen on his BlackBerry that offered three views of West Georgia west of Broughton in downtown Vancouver.
On the security side, the cameras can be mounted in homes, offices, or any facility, allowing owners a virtual view through their cellphone or mobile screens. While Scholefield said the BlackBerry is drawing the most interest as the device of choice for monitoring the cameras, the service works with Treos, pocket PCs, cellphones and other mobile devices that allow for the delivery of video.
The cameras, which can track everything from what your kids are doing while you’re not home to whether thieves are clearing out all the computers from your office, record the video with files that are archived up to seven days.
Scholefield said for security companies with guards investigating alarms, the technology is a safeguard. “This way they can see what’s going on before they go in.”
For Scott Burchett, realization that IP anywhere would simply not work if batteries die, and his frustration at failing to find a solution to keep devices powered while they’re unplugged, led him and Paul Andrews to form Burchett Andrews Distribution — www.badinc.ca — which focuses on portable solar power charging options for the marketplace, such as a solar powered backpack.
