Faceter makes video surveillance smart by changing the way we use cameras in face recognition, object detection and real-time video content analysis. Robert Pothier the CEO of Faceter will be telling us more in this interview.
Please tell us your name and about yourself?
My name is Robert Pothier. I am the CEO of Faceter and have been working with information technology for over 9 years. A few years back (2014/15) a couple of my team members and self, set on a journey to produce a card scanning technology. We succeeded with pay.cards and this sparked off an incredible idea to take this computer vision to another level – Facial recognition and more. I wanted a product that gave artificial technology to everybody, affordably….NOT just for massive corporations and Governments. With the greatest minds in software development and a fantastic MVP, Faceter was born and we set out ways to make it available to the public and SMEs. It sounds cheesy, but my team stand strongly with me when I say that we can change the world, making it a safer place while protecting privacy and giving more power to the people. A change isn’t coming, it is already here now.
What is Faceter?
Faceter is a video surveillance system that allows us not only to recognize people caught by the CCTV camera, but also to detect their emotions, actions, as well as various situations that happen in everyday life—accidents, thefts, and attacks, amongst other things. Moreover, our software can distinguish between people—for example, workers at an office or a production site and strangers who are forbidden to enter this area/space. Our solution can significantly reduce the number of incidents and crimes.
What are the Major Features and Services provided by Faceter?
We provide software that is compatible with a variety of CCTV cameras, and it is simple to configure and use. The user does not need any special technical skills with computers or security cameras. We are planning to distribute two versions of the product: corporate, which allows the client to use their servers and has more flexible settings, and a mass-market version with a convenient interface in the form of a web service and applications for iOS and Android.
What is the technology behind Faceter and how does the ecosystem work?
Faceter is a smart video surveillance technology, and our core technology is a facial recognition AI-based solution. All of our other technologies and applications are made to facilitate this technology, put it in a user-friendly environment where everyone will be able to use it. By developing the service we have found that customers have a lot of other demands, that we are now building into our infrastructure, such as on-demand cloud video storage. This needed to be integrated with the service or calculations suppliers and turned out to be a crucial point for the b2b solution. Many corporates focus on security and data owning much more than we expected, and they do not want any internet connection to be linked to their in-house surveillance system. For this reason, we had to prepare recommendations on integration to satisfy these customers.
What is the market size of the Video Surveillance industry and what is the level of demand for the Faceter System?
This market is currently experiencing some significant changes. The fact is that over the past few years there has been almost no significant improvement in the industry, but the need for video surveillance has grown noticeably and will continue to do so. This is primarily caused by the issue of processing big data and its storage. There are already quite a few effective recognition systems on the market, but not all of them work in real time and they are not available to ordinary users due to their high fees. At Faceter, we found a solution to this problem by using the users’ and miners’ capacities. This gives our clients a video surveillance system that can record and give feedback in real time, and demonstrates how blockchain and cryptocurrency have become an effective addition to the existing technology.
Tell us about the Faceter token, how does it work and what are the benefits for token holders?
Our tokens are used, first of all, as rewards for those who provide their capacities for performing computing operations. Tokens will be used to issue licenses for services used. In essence, this is an internal coin of the service which, if necessary, can be applied more broadly. For example, service users submit applications to connect their CCTV cameras and make payments using their preferred payment methods. If payment is produced without using FACE tokens, it will be converted into tokens instantly.
At what stage of development is the Faceter System and what is next on your roadmap?
Not so long ago, we launched the corporate version of Faceter. We are now working on promoting it and setting up software for those who have already purchased it. The main development team continues to work in two key directions: completing software for the mass market and preparing the service interfaces for the launch. After this, we will be preparing for beta testing and the launch of the production-ready version of Faceter.
Could you tell us about your team and customer support?
The core of the team have been working together for over four years—first on the Pay.Cards project, then on the Faceter solution. Over the past year, we have needed to expand the staff— especially the development team. We now have an Android developer, who works in the Vitaliy Kuzmenko team, as well as a team of testers who joined us to help improve the product. We are delighted that we have been able to create a team that deals with UI / UX for both our B2B and B2C solutions.
How Safe is Faceter, would you like to talk about your legal and security measures?
Faceter technology places security issues under high consideration and protects information from third parties.
Data security is the key pillar of our service. Faceter’s modular architecture allows users to work with original video stream in trusted environments: on camera owners’ devices, on Faceter’s servers, or on the cameras themselves (where possible). The distribution of tasks for the performance and verification of work is made with special orchestrator nodes (Video Hubs) which also act as video hubs and obfuscators of sensitive data. Such nodes are located in the trusted zone unlike all other nodes (incl. all miners) working with impersonal data of no value. Obfuscation is necessary to protect sensitive data. The system obtains a vector of characteristics (digital code) for each person’s face using deep convolutional neural networks, after two convolutions, the image is irreversibly distorted and can be safely transferred to other nodes for subsequent convolutions. Code cannot be converted to the original format with reference to the owner. Only obfuscated (impersonal) data will be used to perform tasks on decentralized networks. In other words, such data cannot be converted to the original format with reference to the owner. All connections are made using secured channels.
Do you have more information for our readers?
We are so grateful that we are able to continue product development and prepare to launch the mass-market solution, even during market fluctuation, and would like to thank everyone who supported us at the crowdfunding stage. We are sure that our product will please not only our investors and token holders, but also those who are interested in creating a safe environment for their families, friends, employees, and themselves. We recently renovated our website, so that now you can find out all the details about our product and services on faceter.io. So we will be glad to see you there!
