Augmented reality has become a much-talked about subject, a technology that superimposes different types of data to the user’s view of the real world through hardware. More and more, the technology is used in security, helping end users protect facilities more effectively.
Augmented reality has become a much-talked about subject, a technology that superimposes different types of data to the user’s view of the real world through hardware. While AR has been used in various applications, from training to Pokemon Go, more and more the technology is used in security, helping end users protect facilities more effectively.
That’s the main point raised in a new blog post by
ASSA ABLOY, which spoke with Brian Schwab, President of S3 Security, on this subject. According to him, besides accessible project information, whereby data on a site is projected to the vision of a project worker; and photo and video capture, whereby what a project manager sees can be shared with other stakeholders, AR can also plays a role in security via two other ways: X-ray vision and precise GPS.
X-ray vision is analogized to the AR glasses by carmaker Mini, whereby drivers donning those glasses and pointing their heads to the side of the car will automatically be shown a camera feed of what’s going on outside. That same idea can be applied for physical security applications. “Let’s say I’m doing a search of a building that has had a bomb threat,” Schwab said. “And I need to know what’s on the other side of a wall. If there’s a camera monitoring a room, I can automatically patch into that video feed and see what’s going on through my headset. If there’s nothing out of the ordinary, I can move onto the next space.”
When integrated with GPS, AP can benefit security professionals as well. “With precise GPS, I can do 3D video mapping as I walk around a site. It will tell me the exact location of my physical security components in a single sweep,” Schwab said. “I can snap a picture of a door, another of the window. I can pan through a site with that GPS and have the precise coordinates.”
According to Schwab, the X-ray vision and precise GPS features can add to accessible project information and photo and video capture to help protect facilities with more effectiveness. “Take a maintenance facility yard as an example,” Schwab said. “Let’s say someone has breached a fence and is moving toward an interior target. Say, they want to steal a truck. If I can use AR to pull up where the intruder came in and what their expected route is, I can tell my team: ‘Go to this location. Now.’ That speed in the response time means the security team is more likely to intercept the adversary.”
According to him, while the AR technology available today is not yet capable of such multi-faceted functions, it’s on the way. “Where we are today with AR, it’s the first step on a very long road,” he said. “But, once we start moving forward, you’re going to see rapid development.”
Check ASSA ABLOY’s
blog post: “Science fiction soon to be (augmented) reality”