Cellular Data Solutions of Bryant announced last week that its new Crime Cam can send real-time video of a robbery at a business to the police. Links to the video arrive by email or text message when an employee activates the system.
It is just one of several internet-of-things solutions CDS has offered over five years in business. Others have helped the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission trap feral hogs and sanitation departments gather proof of violations.
The motion-activated, four-megapixel Crime Cam and feral hog solution provide real-time streaming video; the Crime Cam also sends the GPS coordinates of the business being robbed.
Chuck Denton, CEO of CDS, said that an employee can activate the system by using a wireless key fob, a button on the cash register or a foot pedal.
The footage recorded by the Crime Cam can also be stored in the online cloud with metadata — additional information, including the size of a file, the time it was created, the date it was created and more. All that searchable information can be viewed through an encrypted internet connection.
Denton said each camera would cost retailers $1,250, including installation, plus a monthly fee of $45 for access to the cloud storage. But most cities wouldn’t pay anything because their police departments are likely to have the equipment required to connect to CDS’ system.
The Crime Cam and the feral hog solution work in much the same way.
The feral hog system allows a Game & Fish employee to remotely access real-time views from an motion-activated camera by using a smartphone. The employee can then push a button on the phone to close a trap, Denton said.
“So when a hog does go into the trap, [employees are] sent an email and a text. They click a link and it gives them a live view of the camera so they can actually see the hogs in the trap. And hogs are very smart animals. Some of them will go in the trap, and some of them will stay outside of the trap,” Denton said.
Denton said his hog system has been sold by Bull Creek Welding & Fabrication of Beebe to customers in Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas.
But why trap feral hogs in the first place? The U.S. Department of Agriculture in August announced a $20 million national effort to reduce the devastating damage caused by the rapidly increasing population of the invasive species, which racks up $1.5 billion in annual damage and control costs.
The company’s Curb Cam for sanitation departments also tackles an expensive problem — the man-hours and fuel spent picking up cans that weren’t picked up on the first trip to a neighborhood.
The Curb Cam lets truck drivers push a button and take curbside photos at houses. Those photos can prove that customers didn’t put their cans at the curb in time for their trash to be picked up or that an obstruction prevented the trash from being picked up.
It gives sanitation departments a provable reason to not return to a route, Denton said.
The Curb Cam can also provide proof that comes in handy when customers dispute charges for overfilled cans or spilled trash.
Denton said Fayetteville is using the Curb Cam to collect evidence for charging its customers $6 every time a trash can lid is 3 inches from closing because it’s overfilled and $6 for every trash bag picked up that isn’t in the can.
The system has GPS too, so that dispatchers or supervisors can see where trucks are and for how long, Denton said. It costs $35 a month, he said.
Denton also said the Arkansas Highway & Transportation Department uses CDS equipment to view traffic in real time through 150 cameras, and ambulance services have used it to transmit patient information gathered at the scene of an accident to the hospital before that patient arrives.
The private company has another side as well. It provides equipment that allows customers to access the internet through cell towers rather than cables. Denton said CDS has a good relationship with both AT&T and Verizon, which activate its equipment.
One of the company’s other solutions helps farmers judge soil moisture remotely so that they know when to irrigate crops. Yet another CDS product prevents battery thefts by attaching a camera and GPS to what looks like a battery cap.
“A lot of our customers approach us. If you can dream it up, we can pretty much create a solution,” Denton said.
CDS employs two design engineers and is looking to hire salespeople in several states, he added.
About 70 percent of its business is with government entities, but Denton said he believes that business will be evenly split between governmnt and the private sector by the end of this year.
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