Motorola Solutions buys London-based video-AI start-up Calipsa

By Paul Sandle

LONDON (Reuters) – Motorola Solutions has acquired London-based start-up Calipsa to boost its ability to use AI-powered analytics across any video security solution, helping its customers verify alarms and detect tampering in real time.

Motorola Solutions, created when Motorola split into two in 2011, is focused on public safety and enterprise security products and services, and it has grown its video operations through a string of acquisitions in recent years.

Calipsa’s technology will enable Motorola’s products, which include end-to-end security solutions, camera technology, and features such as alcohol age verification, to analyse huge amounts of data using AI in the cloud, said Motorola’s Software and Mobile Video CTO Mahesh Saptharishi.

“Calipsa is focused on the ability to run on any camera, any solution on premises either with a server or without a server,” he said in an interview.

“So effectively this allows us to overlay AI as a tool to solve the data bottleneck problem, irrespective of the solution you’re running on premises.”

He said Calipsa used machine-learning algorithms to process video, and alert a user only when required to an event such as somebody breaching a secure area or somebody not complying with safety rules like wearing protective clothing.

Calipsa, founded in London in 2016 by a team from Cambridge, UCL and Imperial Universities, says its technology can reduce the number of false alarms in video monitoring systems by more than 90%.

Calipsa Chief Executive Mohammad Rashid said: “Joining the Motorola Solutions team enables us to accelerate the development and broaden the reach of our innovative technologies that transform video from a retroactive investigative tool into a proactive response tool.”

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

(This story corrects spelling of Calipsa in paragraph 4)

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Kate Holton)