Burlingame, CA, Sept. 21, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MotionDSP, a leading provider of advanced image processing and computer vision software, today announced its advanced video redaction software, Ikena Spotlight. This software uses proprietary object-tracking algorithms to help automate the process of blurring faces, license plates and other personally identifiable information found in video that needs to be masked before public release.
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for body camera footage continue to increase as the public seeks more transparency from law enforcement. Until now, there has been a lack of automated tools to assist police departments with redaction, an expensive and time-consuming task. With redaction taking upwards of 17 hours for a 4-minute video, the costs quickly add up, considering the amount of footage being collected every day by officers from body-worn cameras, dash cams and other video capturing devices.
"Our forensic video enhancement software has been used by law enforcement for the past decade, but lately, we've seen a drastic increase in requests for redaction software as departments implement body cams and civilians request access to footage," said Sean Varah, CEO of MotionDSP. "With so many FOIA requests coming in, police departments are overwhelmed by the expensive and time-consuming challenge of preparing evidence for public release. Ikena Spotlight helps ease that burden."
An important feature that sets Ikena Spotlight apart from other software is its proprietary object-tracking capability. Rather than manually blurring faces frame-by-frame, a user selects a face or object, inserts a beginning and ending key frame, and the software handles the majority of the workload by tracking movements and applying a blur.
Ikena Spotlight can also be used to highlight important objects, people or movements. For example, someone may be acting suspicious in the background of a video. It can be difficult to draw the viewer's attention to the activity (e.g., a juror or someone watching the news). Ikena Spotlight's overlay tools allow the user to add arrows, text and other shapes to the video to highlight important information.
Ikena Spotlight also obscures all irrelevant information in a video while keeping the main subject of the video in view. If a fight broke out in a crowd and it was captured on video, the user can blur everything in the scene except for the people involved in the fight, all while following them around and automatically keeping irrelevant information hidden from view.
"Our goal is to make the process of redaction easier for police departments so they can focus on the things that matter most, like investigating crimes and protecting the streets," said Austin Dillman, VP of Marketing at MotionDSP. "At the same time, we want to make it easier and more efficient for citizens and the press to get access to video footage under the Freedom of Information Act."
Ikena Spotlight is easy to use and requires very little training for even the most non-technical person. For more information on Ikena Spotlight, please visit https://www.motiondsp.com/ikena-spotlight.
About MotionDSP
MotionDSP is a leading provider of advanced image processing and computer vision software that helps police departments and organizations extract critical information from video. MotionDSP is used by the U.S. Secret Service, Scotland Yard, Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), London Metropolitan Police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and many other law enforcement agencies in the US and around the world.