Transcript: How Technology Will Transform Security
Operator:
Welcome to GE On-Demand, you are behind the scenes of GE's technology and ideas and the people who make it happen. We hope you like what you find. If this is your first time listening to GE Podcast and you would like to find out more, you can do so by going to www.ge.com/ondemand. GE recently invited members of the media to its Global Research Center in New York to showcase the next generation of security technology. Since entering the security market in 2002, GE has been developing the next generation of products to further protect people, products and assets. We sat down with Louis Parker, President and CEO of GE Security and Joe Krisciunas, Security Programs Manager at the Research Center to get a sneak preview of the technologies that will protect us now and in the future.
Louis Parker:
I am Louis Parker. I am President and CEO of GE Security.
Joe Krisciunas:
And I am Joe Krisciunas. I am the Program Manager here at the Global Research Center for all the security.
Louis Parker:
Well think that the reason that we are so excited about GE Security as a growth platform for GE is that there is a requirement around the world obviously for what we do. It's a dual purpose, it's a great business, it's also great for the world. And this is also industry that is really in a lot of way in its infancy and we have an opportunity as GE Security to really shape and define the security industry on a global basis. So I think that the growth opportunity and areas that we can play in are tremendous and there is going to be a tremendous growth platform for GE. We play in the sector of electronics like the security industry to look the security industry, it's about a $160-$200 billion worldwide depending on what information you use. And we are playing about a $38 billion sector of that, where we can use technology as a differentiator. We can use electronic detectors such as differentiator in the marketplace, so that's where we chose to play not in areas that are very labor intensive, people intensive. We are playing in the areas, very technology intensive and really fits the model that one, would take and run the business better than our competitors and two, we can use technology as a differentiator.
Joe Krisciunas:
Yeah the technology differentiation, it really enables a lot of application that you couldn't do manually and one of the big themes where we see technology differentiating is moving from more of a reactive model to a proactive model. So if you can do more analytics that detects more threats, that detects behaviors of people and detect and prevent events from happening rather than just using technology that forensics tools fit up to the fact to solve the crime and detect what happened then it's a huge, huge benefit by actually providing more secure environment. We are really tapping into the strengths of GE and one of things in my role, I interact with a lot with the GE Health and Global Research Center and the team here is all fired up because we have got this great technology base. One example is in our image analysis capabilities. We have got this great history of doing radiography and image analysis for the healthcare market, so when we got into security business, the people were banging on my door, saying hey we can adapt this great technology and now use it for the security application. So instead of looking for an anomaly in some of CAT scan, I am looking for something that's unusual in someone's check baggage. And it's very similar technology and it's one of the powers of GE brands, you take technology, develop for one area and now apply to a different application. We will do that in number of areas.
Operator:
Parker discussed GE's work to improve the security check experience for airline passengers.
Louis Parker:
One of the big issues today is the security checkpoint at airports and our focus is, our vision is how can we make the checkpoint both safer, but also a more positive experience for the traffic and that's where we are really excited, because we have a lab in San Francisco Airport that puts together a lot of different technology to really improve the experience. We have a millimeter wave, a portal there that actually checks for hard-to-detect weapons. We have a CT scanner there for carryon baggage, because actually carryon baggage things like plastics and such we cannot detect from the x-ray. We have a shoe scanner there and that's one of the big things that we have access in our lab and _______ 4.45 day to day, where you don't have to take your shoes off. Our whole objective here and in this lab, we have been able to get a person from beginning to end in 20 seconds, so it's a much faster experience and much more comfortable experience for the passenger and also it's lot more secured experience because what we are checking is about the lot more security in that as well. Our real vision for the checkpoint area is that, you would no longer have to take your shoes off, you would no longer have to take your jacket off, you would no longer have to take your computer out of your carryon luggage or your briefcase and that will be more of a walkthrough capability and we are making lot of progress.
Joe Krisciunas:
You know the technology exists, I think part of it is just getting with the customer and putting the concept of operations in place. We could configure the technology and to do a CT on a check bag in relatively short time. I think it's mater of how we roll it out and work with the customer and tie with the concept of operations for all these other things because half of the battle on these is not just having one technical piece but what's whole model's throughput in that lane. You don't want to create a bottleneck for the check bag or speed the check bag through valve, people are still waiting taking off their shoes and jackets. So I don't think we have to see a step function of, hey today the checkpoint looks like this and tomorrow it would like this, I think you will see the valve as we introduced pieces of technology and gradually shorten that time and improve that experience.
Operator:
Parker went on to discuss how GE businesses work with the research centers around the world to bring technology breakthrough to the marketplace.
Louis Parker:
Your action with GRC, I think it's not just, it's been here in this unit obviously with our EPC in China and particularly we do a lot of interactions in Bangalore.
Joe Krisciunas:
We work closely on a day to day basis and a lot of our teams are combined teams with folks from the security operation and folks from the GRC and anytime an issue comes up or there is some technology need I will contact consulate Phil Megan, the Chief Technology Officer and we are constantly working together.
Louis Parker:
One thing I will highlight is right in this very room, we had a worldwide product planning session, it's an annual thing. We get the marketing leaders, the product managers and the technology leaders in the security business in this room with the technologists and we have folks from all the global sites. And we looked at, first in a couple of days looking where our product roadmaps are? What the major markets we are trying to serve? What are our product roadmaps? How do we leverage technology to differentiate there and we spend a day and a half going through those roadmaps. And then we took a day and had a brainstorming day that, now what are the next generation imagination breakthroughs, how do we get the collective knowledge in this room and the market knowledge and the technical knowledge and look for opportunities that really could enable the next breakthrough. We are able to contest, we are having fun with it. We made it like a venture capital contest and we had the teams compete. We took some seed money and gave an award to the winning idea and did a proof of concept and have a prototype of something that will track people through valves and we actually had a demonstration of that last week, just early prototype, we think that could be next generation product that's really exciting. Build on some technology that existed and some that people brainstormed the session and we want to keep those kinds of things going, just let's look for those seed ideas what could be the next imagination breakthrough and form those ideas and bring into fruition.
Operator:
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