Mucho Gusto, Oosto!

Today, AnyVision is renaming itself to Oosto.

Let’s start by discussing what this name change is not about. We did not get sold or acquired. We did not change markets. We are not running away from the facial recognition space.

What this name change is about is bringing our brand in line with our expanded vision and the markets we serve. Over the last seven years, we were focused on helping modern enterprises better protect themselves from known security threats by leveraging facial recognition and Visual AI technologies. The goal was to transform CCTV cameras into proactive security solutions. But, increasingly companies are looking to protect customers, guests, and employees from a variety of threats and provide a higher level of safety and security.

Physical Threats Go Hand-In-Hand with Cyber Attacks

Cybersecurity attacks are becoming more sophisticated every day, with attackers able to hack, eavesdrop, spoof, and socially engineer their way into valuable corporate and customer data. With the average breach costing $3.62 million in damage, it’s no wonder that global enterprises are scrambling to secure their networks and prevent attackers from gaining access to their digital assets. Add to this ransomware attacks which have already seen a 102% increase in the first half of 2021(compared to the beginning of last year, according to a report from cybersecurity firm Check Point Software).

While digital hacking incidents are on the rise, many IT professionals have lost focus on the tried-and-true method of attacking physical security. In targeted hits, attackers are targeting physical threat vectors in order to bypass digital controls, or even vice-versa. If you’re putting most (or all) of your eggs into the cyber basket, criminals will often resort to the old-fashioned break-and-enter and then attack the system from inside, completely bypassing traditional network security.

AnyVision is now Oosto.
Read the Press Release

How Can Oosto Make the World a Safer Place?

Well, it still starts with facial recognition which we use to identify known security threats from watchlists. We leverage ethical AI and video analytics to match people that are captured by cameras to persons of interest in real-time, even when they’re in crowds, not looking directly at the camera, or obscured by other people.

But, the possibilities are much greater especially if you’re trying to protect your customers, guests and employees from a myriad of threats. That’s why we will be investing in new technologies that help security professionals protect their premises, including:

• Object Recognition: The ability to detect vehicles, weapons, and even unattended luggage from live video footage.
• Body Recognition: Full body detectors which combine face and body poses help us track individuals as they traverse your property, even if they are walking away from a camera. This can even help identify when someone has fallen down and needs medical assistance.
• Aggression Detection: 3D reconstruction of human faces can start to tap into a person’s emotional state and can flag security if a person is under duress or potentially in medical jeopardy.
• Age Estimation: Advanced algorithms can start to automatically label a human face from video footage with an approximate age group (e.g., actual age, appearance age, perceived age, or estimated age). In retail use cases, this type of analytics can provide a better assessment of customer demographics.
• Touchless Access Control: Oosto will continue investing in touchless technologies that limit (or eliminate) the need to touch physical surfaces which can help spread germs and disease.

Why Oosto?

As we discovered, changing your company name is not for the faint of heart. We literally explored more than 300 names before settling on “Oosto.”  So, what does it mean?

Absolutely nothing!

It’s a name that doesn’t have any meaning in the English language. We liked it because it was short, fun to say, and easy to pronounce.  It’s a purely invented name, but it’s a name that will allow us to recreate a fresh, authentic brand and reinvent a category. Instead of just focusing on security use cases, Oosto is raising its gaze to protect the people that propel your business — customers, guests, and your own employees.

Commitment to Ethical AI & Recognition

Facial recognition has captured today’s headlines, raising many important questions about its accuracy and ethical use. These concerns have even led to blanket bans on use of the technology in several U.S. and European jurisdictions, without regard to the purpose or the benefits of specific applications.

There is a clear need for steps to build public trust without eliminating the crucial benefits the technology can provide. Oosto will lead the way in ethical recognition, but we can’t do this by ourselves  — it’s about educating the market, the press, and everyday consumers.

That’s why we’re teaming up with Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab Biometric Research Center which will focus on early-stage research in object, body, and behavior recognition. This team is helping us explore new safety related use cases and ensure that the technology is used to better protect all of us from a growing and varied security threats from school shooters to touch-based transmissions.

“The realm of object, body, and behavioral recognition research has largely been untapped in a number of commercial markets,” said CMU’s Professor Marios Savvides. “Sadly, most security alerts happen too late to be actionable. We want to provide solutions that provide actionable intelligence in real-time whether that’s alerting medical staff when someone has fallen or identifying weapons on school grounds. I’m genuinely excited to jointly explore and invent AI-based solutions that help make this a safer planet.”

We will also partner with industry leaders, thought leaders and academic institutions to publish best practices in ethical facial recognition. This includes explaining how facial (and other types of) recognition work and how the algorithms were developed, providing levels of transparency that historically have been lacking.

But, it also is about imparting guidance on how these solutions should be deployed and used. It’s about providing clear notification to users before they encounter a camera’s visual field to capture biometric data and about disclosing any practices that link users’ biometric data to information from third parties or from publicly available sources.

With the introduction of every new technology, there is an inherent opportunity to gain or lose stakeholders’ trust. Unsurprisingly, most new technologies are met with mistrust (e.g., DNA testing, robotics, biometrics) — and much of this mistrust is well founded. Just witness the number of security hacks, inappropriate or illegal surveillance, misuse of personal data, spread of misinformation, algorithmic bias, and lack of transparency. Oosto is committed to harnessing the power of ethical AI for good and firmly believes that  the benefits can far exceed the costs  — if the technology is developed, deployed and used ethically.

The world is increasingly dangerous. We want to make it a safer place.

Welcome to the Oosto Revolution!