Aditya Sekhar, Joint Managing Director, Micro Technologies Ltd, talks about the journey of Micro Technologies and the technological innovations that the company has engineered. In conversation with Nikita Apraj, ENN
Tell us about 21 years’ journey of Micro Technologies.
Micro Technologies was formed in 1992. In first ten years of our beginning, we totally focused on modernisation, computerisation and upgradation of government and government organisations. All the projects that we did were converted into a range of products for commercialisation for other entities.
Two years after we got listed in 2000, we came out with our first security product for internet access security (Micro IAS) for a major bank. Mobile market had just started picking up then; we decided to base all our security solutions on mobile phones.
Micro IAS was our first security product for secured netbanking. It informs the user through an SMS about every login into his account from any website where internet access security is distinct. If the user has not logged into the account and he suspects that it is hacked, he can block the account by replying with an SMS ‘BLOCK’.
In 2004, we launched our first SMS-based hardware security device –‘Micro Vehicle Black Box’ (Micro VBB) that enables the owner to control his vehicle even after it is stolen. In case of theft, the owner simply needs to send an SMS to the vehicle saying “Engine Off ”. It will stop the vehicle within 30 seconds wherever it is and it will not start even with the original keys. ‘Micro VBB’ also tracks the vehicle movement live on the map using GPS.
Our security product for home informs the home-owner through an SMS in case of a door intrusion, gas leakage, fire, motion detection. The same product is featured on GSM phones. It looks like a simple landline phone with all emergency numbers fed into it. In case of emergency, simply dialling one number will send the contact an SMS saying there’s emergency at home. Today we have a range about 350 products dealing in security segment.
You recently launched an application with Maharashtra Police for ensure better security for women, children and elderly people.
It is not just for women or elderly people; it’s for everyone. This application is very simple. Once installed on the mobile, all I have to do in case of emergency is dial “000”. It activates the panic mode and sends a message to the family members telling them about my emergency. The application also provides a link in the message which will indicate them my location on the map.
Even if a person is abducted and he manages to enable the application, the application will start tracking his movement on GPS unless it is stopped manually. We are configuring other numbers in the application to bring more customisation, like “001” for medical emergency, “002” for fire emergency and an option to customize your emergency messages as per user requirement.
Brief us about your Bermuda City Surveillance Project.
Bermuda City Surveillance Project required us to install face recognition system into the surveillance cameras. The technology has been made so efficient that it can detect a person even if he changes his appearance, say removing beard or cutting hairs. We installed such video analytics there which would tell the police immediately on detection of a particular person.
You have won a project from Aadhaar in Maharashtra. Can you share some details on this?
We have won this project for four cities in Maharashtra. We will cover a population of around 1.7 crore people. The overall project value is about Rs. 50 Crore. In one of the big PSU banks in north India, we have installed an attendance system based on face-recognition. Its employees simply stand in front of the machine to mark their attendance. We have made it very advanced so that it scans the skull, and not just the face. It means that the machine will detect a person even if he/she wears a scarf around his face. It was one of the main reasons that UIDAI decided to grant us the Aadhaar project.
What are Micro Technologies future plans?
In next five years, we aim to become the biggest security solutions company in India. Thereafter, our aim will be to become a renowned global company. We believe in following certain principles in business and that could be a reason why it took two decades to reach where we are today.
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