Fox news has broadcast a special report on the Morrelley Homeland Security Center. Only two months have passed since the first Resident Research Partners have moved in, and already Balfour Technologies, Power Management Concepts, and Globecomm have begun creating new technology solutions for emergency responders. The Fox news report highlights Balfour and the fourDscape^® software as an integral tool for situational awareness.

Balfour Technologies has moved into the new Homeland Security Applied Science Center (HLS ASC), located in Bethpage NY.  This New York State sponsored Center of Innovation and Excellence will quickly become a hub of collaboration between industry, academia, and local, state and federal emergency response organizations and agencies, applying advanced technologies to needed homeland security applications for the first responder community.  2010 will be an exciting first year at the Center.  Stay tuned...

Under contract to DHS in their Regional Technology Integration Initiative (RTII) Program, a fourDscape^® Command and Control security solution is being deployed at the Anaheim Convention Center.  The interactive Common Operating Picture integrates aerial photography, 3D floor plan models, video surveillance camera feeds, HVAC status/control, environmental sensors, and semi-automated standard operating procedures for local security personnel.  The system can also be accessed remotely during emergencies for first responder personnel arriving at the scene.

At the Verizon campus in Ashburn, VA, more than one hundred people came by invitation to witness the operation of the Verizon Business ECS Solution, a stand-alone trailer solution which included  a fourDscape^® Common Operating Picture tied to wireless/mesh surveillance assets.

The "EYES IN FOUR DIMENSIONS" article highlights how fourDscape^® surveillance technology helps first responders access events in real-time.

Under the DHS System Assessment and Validation for Emergency Responders (SAVER) Program, fourDscape^® is included as "commercial-off-the-shelf incident decision support software that aims to provide situational awareness to and support the decisions of incident commanders and emergency management officials (including small and rural communities) in response to an incident... providing situation reports, geospatial/visual information and the status of resources within a single user interface/portal".

Collaborating with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and the Pasadena Police Department, the 2009 Rose Bowl Parade was watched locally (and also remotely in both NY and D.C.) in a live fourDscape^® realistic Common Operating Picture, providing situation awareness utilizing high-resolution aerial photography, 3D building models, GIS tactical deployment plans, wireless/mesh and mobile live surveillance cameras (in and along the parade route) and real-time GPS-tracked security assets.  Lt. John Sullivan of the LASD said that this technology "demonstrated the value of 4D visualization for tactical and operational applications".

The DHS Science & Technology (S&T) Directorate is sponsoring innovative fourDscape^® applied technology that effectively integrates all the live sensor data feeds into a cohesive, easy-to-understand view of what's going on at the scene.  Utilized during Operation Lupercale in Los Angeles with the LASD in January, "the fourDscape^® management engine took all of the data from those sensors and seamlessly fused them together into a single, visual 4D Scene that was meaningful and useful to the police," said Stephen Dennis, who manages the project at the Directorate's Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency.  "It gave us a chance to see what it would be like to have true situational awareness during a major, real-world event.  It gave us, well, a not-so-common COP."

Balfour Technologies is deploying their patented fourDscape^® technology in support of the Operation Golden Phoenix ’08 mission. Funded in part by DHS S&T over the past 18 months through the Federal Government’s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Program, fourDscape^® technology has been applied to deliver Automated Situation Awareness in a Common Operating Picture using a single, interactive visual canvas. Using a fourDscape^® browser, the system is scalable and fully capable of managing large arrays of surveillance sensor suites, including high quality video feeds, correlating and fusing raw data sources over time. The natural, easy to use visual interface delivers full contextual and interactive situation awareness to the user.

OVERALL GOLDEN PHOENIX TRAINING OBJECTIVES:

• Raise awareness of the mechanisms and expectations of a multi-agency response-generating event.

• Understand and execute disaster relief request/approval/assignment process.

• Identify and address select issues including coordination, command, control and communications during a local disaster relief scenario of national significance.

• Identify and address select logistical air and ground support issues during a local disaster relief scenario.

• Exercise inter-agency exposure and collaboration.

Balfour Technologies Demonstrates Embedded Live Cameras wirelessly in fourDscape^® at the Homeland Security S&T Stakeholders Conference-East “Partnering for a Safer Nation”
(June 2-5, 2008)

Balfour Technologies along with its partners Mesh City and Fugro EarthData, demonstrated its ability to embed live camera feeds wirelessly into a fourDscape^® portal of downtown Washington DC. Using a Mesh City Mesh Networking wireless fidelity node hooked up to 2 Axis cameras mounted on a building on K Street, Balfour was able to Geo-Locate the cameras into a virtual scene being shown at the DHS Science & Technology Conference at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, DC.

Balfour & VidSys show 3D Surveillance Interface at ISC West 2008 in Las Vegas
(April 2-4, 2008)
 
Balfour Technologies and VidSys demonstrated a three-dimensional imaging interface based on Balfour’s fourDscape^® technology for VidSys’s latest version of its industry leading PSIM software. The solution plots alarms onto 3D imaging views of cities or buildings offering users the ability to "fly in" to the precise location of the incident and automatically bring up the area video feeds and other relevant information to quickly resolve the situation.

As part of the DHS Science & Technology Conference in Los Angeles, CA, aptly titled  "Putting First Responders First," Balfour’s fourDscape^® technology was put to the test during Operation Lupercale, a planning and emergency response exercise that included DHS and the Los Angeles Sherriff’s Department. The exercise was streamed live into the LA Convention Center where the Conference was taking place from the County Emergency Operations Center of East Los Angeles where the exercise was taking place.  This was done several times throughout the day, including during a presentation by Dr. Roger McGinnis, Director of Innovation / HSARPA for S&T. The exercise simulated a scenario where a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (that is, a car bomb) and a radiological dispersion device (like a dirty bomb) were notionally released against the Tournament of Roses Parade, which takes place on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, Calif. Also included were the L.A. Sherriff’s Bomb Squad, the Hazardous Material Response Team, and other resources in the vicinity of the County Emergency Operations Center of East Los Angeles. (See case study page for more details).

Balfour Technologies demonstrated its ability to fly Pictometry imagery at FutureView 2007 in Orlando, FL. The features that were exhibited were

• Interactive 4D from Pictometry^® Imagery- fourDscape^® integrating high-res Precision Lightworks 3D models produced from Pictometry Oblique Imagery into a seamless 4D Landscape.

• Situation Awareness (Virtual Scene)- Integrating Intelligent data sources into a realistic interactive visual scene, fourDscape^® creates intuitive situation awareness.

• Intelligent Data Portals- Data portals created from intelligent data sources, such as high resolution aerial photography, 3D models, and moving objects extracted from video and other tracking sensor feeds and locator devices, combined into a powerful, interactive 4D Landscape.

• Single Immersive View- fourDscape^® architecture can integrate a range of disparate sensor data used by a command center into a single immersive view.

• Field Deployable- Regional data portals provided on portable computers that can be used at a specific site(s) within a region for such actions as pre-event planning, field asset deployment, incident response, etc.

About FutureView 2007: FutureView 2007 is an international user conference hosted annually by Pictometry and it is the world's only conference and trade show exclusively dedicated to georeferenced, aerial oblique imaging solutions and related technologies. FutureView's unique program offerings are hands-on learning events presented by experienced users of Pictometry solutions, specifically those in the public safety, tax assessment and GIS fields.

This work is sponsored in part by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency. This information does not necessarily reflect the policy of the Government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

Balfour Technologies Awarded Contract by U.S. Department of Homeland Security
(May 1, 2007)

Balfour Technologies has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) directorate....

Balfour Technologies Awarded 1st U.S. Department of Homeland Security Contract
(August 30, 2006)

BALFOUR Technologies has recently been awarded a research contract from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), as part of their Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program....