ICx Technologies buys analytics firm PureTech

WASHINGTON--ICx Technologies added to its growing technology suite this week with the purchase of PureTech Systems, a Phoenix-based developer of video analytics, both server-based and edge-device-based. Larry Bowe, PureTech president, will remain with the company and will head a new division to be known as ICx Vision Systems. ICx has positioned itself as a manufacturer of the industry's best sensors, and the addition of PureTech is a good fit, Bowe said, because "the fact that a camera can be turned into a sensor is a very powerful thing. You get a dual use out of the camera, both as a sensor and as visual corroboration." PureTech's analytics are particularly well suited to wide-area and perimeter surveillance, Bowe said, considering its ability to use GIS information to know the location of a camera in the scene that it's looking at and where an object "is intercepting the ground. When the object shows up, we can set up sophisticated rules for speed, direction, object type--maybe we only care about humans or trucks--and we can build policies based on that." Bowe said integration with existing ICx technology would be relatively smooth because PureTech's software is built on the .Net architecture. "We've been able to really quickly integrate with their radar and thermal units," he said. It shouldn't be long, he thought, before the analytics can be put right on board a number of the ICx cameras and other vision systems. "One of the key things we bring," he said, "is a world-class software architecture and a design team that really has a specialty in image processing and geographic imaging systems." Further, he said his team has experience and a track record of bringing technologies from early adoption markets to mainstream markets, something that will be important for the growth of the analytics business.