FOSE 2012 Archives - Serious Startups

Rawporter Road Show: Biometrics Associates Encrypted Bluetooth Technologies

At the government technology show, formerly called FOSE, in Washington DC we got a chance to talk with Biometrics Associates. This company has developed some very cool encrypted Bluetooth technologies that are implemented in military and government uses.

Their first product is a card reader that, when attached to a smartphone, allows apps that use Biometrics Associates SDK to be unlocked. The only way to unlock these apps is with the right key card and the right credentials on the keycard. Biometrics Associates offers an SDK where developers can build any kind of protected app.

App uses already in use or in development include email protection apps, phone unlocking apps, tactical planning apps and even apps that are used to protect plans for military equipment. Their technology is approved by the United States Department of Defense and NSA to ensure that it meets the top-secret clearance needed at such a high level.

The other technology they offer is a secure BlueTooth headset. As you’ll learn in the video the secured Bluetooth headset uses its own pairing mechanism so that the default 0000 and 1234 codes don’t work to pair the phone with the headset. In addition once locked to the phone it creates a shield that won’t allow any kind of Bluetooth interruption, penetration or eaves dropping.

The headsets were built to NSA specification so that even the highest level agent in any branch of government can talk securely via Bluetooth headset to another party.

“Today’s CAC user needs secure access to mobile applications”, noted Scott Johnson, BAL Executive Vice President and COO, “but sensitive information – both data and voice – must be protected from multiple points of attack. Imagine a doctor in a DoD hospital making his or her rounds with an Android tablet. This doctor needs CAC authenticated access to the hospital medical records database but also needs to be able to dictate notes into the patient’s record over an encrypted Bluetooth link. We are proud to provide products to make this a reality.”

Sound interesting, watch the video.

Rawporter Road Trip: FOSE 2012: Browse Aloud, Just Like The Name Says

While you’re perusing across the internet consuming web page after web page and moving as fast as your fingers will type you may not stop and think about the 45 million people in the US who have literacy problems. You may not consider the 10-15% of the population with a learning disability or the 18% of the U.S. population who speak and read English as a second language. Well the folks at Browse Aloud have done that for you.

They’ve been around since 1996 helping to make the internet more accessible to those who can’t read as well as they’d like. We bumped into them at the FOSE 2012 show in Washington DC while on our Rawporter RoadTrip (www.rawporter.com). What do they do? Well they do exactly what the name suggests.

Browse Aloud is a toolbar that works with any browser and has a set of functions that read web pages to the user in whatever way they want. If the user wants to be read an entire page Browse Aloud will do that. If they only want to read a selected text or the next paragraph Browse Aloud can do that too.

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Rawporter Roadshow: FOSE 2012: Motorola Mobility Shows Off 1GB Indoor Fiber Networking

We’ve all heard of FIOS right, and we know the value and speed of a fiber optic network? Well on our Rawporter Roadtrip we got to spend some time with Motorola Mobility to talk about something other than Android phones. That something is a blazing fast in home or in office networking product that uses fiber optic instead of copper ethernet.

The gigabit fiber optic network gives you in home or office speeds from the basement through the house of up to 1gb per second, now that’s amazingly fast.

We actually didn’t know that this product was in the Motorola Mobility family we thought that Mobility encompassed Android phones and set top boxes.

Admittedly, Motorola Mobility is only rolling this product out at a government and enterprise level currently but since when does Google not cater to the consumer. One of two things will happen with this product after the Google merger it will either be sold off or we’ll start seeing it in homes as well.

Rawporter Roadtrip: Fose 2012 Check Out What SF Based Startup Nixle Is Doing For Communities Everywhere

On our Rawporter Roadtrip stop at the FOSE 2012 show in Washington DC we bumped into the guys from Nixle. Nixle is a new platform that allows municipal agencies like the police, elected officials, and county governments to quickly communicate with their residents in emergency situations, for community announcements and to keep people informed.

When Nixle started in 2009 they had just one local government agency using the service today they have over 5,000 local police and other public safety services using Nixle to communicate with their residents through SMS and mobile applications.

“Nixle provides communities throughout the country with news and information that is both proximate and personally relevant. Our technology is critical in creating new communication paths that have never existed before. We’ve set out to enable highly granular, location-specific information to be immediately available to users, depending on their physical location at any given time. Nixle makes this information instantly available over, SMS, mobile application, email, and web. Nixle’s executive team has in-depth experience and a deep understanding of internal processes at local police departments, emergency service agencies, city and municipal governmental agencies and community outreach organizations. This allows Nixle’s technology to be “best of breed” for these authorized users and ensures credibility of information delivered to residents and community visitors. Given the success of Nixle’s Municipal Wire Service, Nixle is currently releasing new and exciting paid-for services into the marketplace. “

People are beginning to take notice of how fast information can spread by mobile application and text (SMS) messaging. For instance when school campuses get locked down texts go into an all time frenzy. Now with Nixle, those folks living in a city or town that is in some kind of emergency they can rest assured knowing that their police, fire department or other agency may be using the Nixle system giving them an easy way to determine the validity of a message.

Nixle can come in handy in spontaneous natural disasters like Tornados where there is often not enough lead time before the actual damage sets in. Now with a click of a few buttons municipal leaders can quickly dispatch a massive message to their residents.

Nixle was the 2011 winner of the Government Service News: Best Mass Notification System award. Other accolades include the “Outstanding Product of 2012” by Law Officer.

You can see if your city or town is covered by simply texting your cell phone number to 888777.

For more info visit Nixler at www.nixle.com

Rawporter Roadtrip: FOSE 2012: Griffin Shows Off Tech For Government, Military & Medical

Griffin the global music and accessory company has shown off a whole different side of their portfolio of accessories at the FOSE show in Washington DC today. We visited the FOSE show today as part of our Rawporter Roadtrip (www.rawporter.com).

Griffin showed off their survivor series cases for the new iPad. These are the only government certified to military spec A10 iPad cases on the market today. We found out that some companies like Otterbox say they are “designed to meet mil spec standards” however the Griffin line is the only line that is certified mil-spec A10 approved. That means that Griffin has gone through the rigorous testing process which includes fully submersing the cases, dropping them from 6 feet and more.

The newest survivor series case, the Survivor 2 will be available in May for the iPad, iPod and iPhone however they are coming shortly after for Samsung and Motorola tablets and smartphones.

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