Motorola's public safety AI solution

Motorola Solutions is developing ‘intelligent’ cameras for use by the emergency services, working in collaboration with AI specialist Neurala.

According to Motorola, the cameras will have the ability to learn in real time, while automatically searching for persons or objects of interest. This, it is hoped, will enable police officers to find these things more quickly and efficiently.

Neurala’s solution provides an alternative to AI engine training, via something known as ‘incremental learning’. This feature also reduces the risk of ‘catastrophic forgetting’ – currently a major issue for deep learning neural networks –, while enabling enhanced accuracy and latency.

Paul Steinberg, Motorola Solutions chief technology officer, said: “We see powerful potential for artificial intelligence to improve safety and efficiency for our customers, which in turn helps create safer communities.

“However, applying AI in a public safety setting presents unique challenges. Neurala’s ‘edge learning’ capabilities will help us explore solutions for a variety of public safety workflows such as finding a missing child or investigating an object of interest, such as a bicycle.”

He continued: “Neurala’s technology can unlock new applications for public safety users. For instance, imagine if the parent showed a missing child’s photo to a nearby police officer on patrol.

“The officer’s body-worn camera sees the photo, the AI engine ‘learns’ what the child looks like and deploys an engine to the body-worn cameras of nearby officers, quickly creating a team searching for the child.”

Motorola and Neurala have a history of collaboration, with Motorola Solutions Venture Capital already operating as a lead investor in Neurala's Series A funding.