iHLS TV Interview: Israel’s Friendliest Security System

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Many Israelis are familiar with the following scenario: Reach the train station early in the morning, tired, carrying a heavy bag; all you want is to get to your seat and relax for a little while before the work day begins. But then, at the entrance, you encounter rail security – a long wait in line followed by guards awkwardly checking the contents of your bags. Still, you say to yourself, it’s all for my safety, isn’t it?

Shahar Belkin, CTO of FST21, said that it doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to give up your personal safety to live more comfortably. FST21 develops security systems according to a new principle: Convenient Security. The systems identify people in real time and immediately determine whether they have clearance or not – without disturbing them at all.

IHLS – Israel Homeland Security

The systems use advanced facial recognition and body language algorithms, all stored in a database. Regarding privacy concerns, Belkin explained that even if the databases were hacked there would be no way to use the information – body language data, for example, is useless anywhere else.

According to Belkin the system isn’t intended to replace humans. The advantage of a digital system, though, is that it can easily be installed in every entrance. The system itself can be used in any sort of passage that requires access control – corridors, doors and gates in apartment buildings, offices, airports and more.

Unlike common security systems, concludes Belkin, systems based on “convenient security” treat us normal, hard working folk as the “good guys”, not as suspects to be interrogated.