Vodacom's expanding range of business solutions will now tap into the safety and security arena. The company unveiled its next-generation policing (NGP) offering at GovTech in Durban this week.
Vuyani Jarana, chief officer for business development at Vodacom, says NGP aims to leverage existing technologies by integrating them to create a solution tailored for the safety and security industry.
The system - developed in partnership with Samsung - connects cars to the Internet and equips them with mounted cameras that send live video feeds to a centralised control room. It also integrates smartphones and tablets that can send alerts and record evidence in real-time, as well as a smartwatch and a lightweight vest that record vital signs data to relay health and wellness information to a remote command centre.
Jarana said Vodacom and Samsung have, for the past few months, used simulated databases to mimic the Electronic National Traffic Information System to test its viability. "We built systems that are just as complex as part of the trial process. We will be meeting with the South African Police Service and other security companies over the next few weeks to present the solution to them," he said.
"Improved crime intelligence using the system means police would be able to stop a car, scan number plates through the mounted camera, and then cross-check data across local and possibly international databases within a very short space of time."
Offline capability
Vehicles equipped with NGP will also have a "black box" that records data for offline storage in areas that have low network coverage, says Jarana. "The vehicle is usually transmitting data to the control room in real-time, but, in the event that the car gets out of an area of 3G coverage, the black box stores and encrypts information so that it can be automatically uploaded once the vehicle returns to the police station."
Jarana said the thin vests that officers can wear will be used to submit information on their vital signs and also send alerts should officers come under physical harm. He could not specify how much its deployment would cost, but indicated the bulk of the costs would go towards maintaining systems once implemented.
"We are confident the solution we have built is scalable. A lot of our work was based on observations of similar systems operating in Rome and we tried as much as possible to make sure it is suited to local conditions."
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