Motorola invests in smart tech ventures

Motorola Solutions, through its investment arm Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, has invested in VocalZoom, a developer of sensors for speech enhancement.

VocalZoom has developed an optoelectronic microphone able to substantially enhance a speaker’s voice over any background noise. The technology creates a ‘virtual cube’ in space, sensing sound from only within the cube.

The technology enables highly significant speech enhancement and precise speaker isolation, which are the key elements missing today to enable mass usage of voice-driven applications for devices such as radios and smartphones.

Motorola Solutions says its investment is part of its strategy to advance mission-critical communications by connecting public safety and commercial customers with real-time data and intelligence “like never before”.

The company says it believes VocalZoom’s technology can establish a new frontier in voice commands and sharing of intelligence with public safety personnel through devices, even in a noisy environment or in the heat of the moment with a perpetrator.

Voice-enabled technology is one of many ways that Motorola Solutions is defining the future of mission-critical public safety communications.

“VocalZoom has the potential to be the difference of whether a firefighter can communicate at a dangerous fire scene or if a transportation or utility worker can give or receive information in a noisy work environment,” said Paul Steinberg, chief technology officer at Motorola Solutions.

“For police officers, for example, turning their heads to communicate can be the difference between life and death for them or the people they are protecting, or the difference between whether a criminal is apprehended or escapes.”

“VocalZoom’s optical microphone is the only technology of its kind that is not affected by any background noise and has the potential to provide disruptive voice clarity in any condition,” said VocalZoom Chairman Yechiel Kurtz.

“We are excited with the partnership with Motorola Solutions, which provides us with new opportunities in a large and strategic market.”

Other VocalZoom investors in this series of funding include existing investors 3M and OurCrowd, as well as new investor FueTrek (Japan).

Crime scene software

Motorola has also invested in Toronto-based SceneDoc, a law enforcement and public safety software provider.

SceneDoc’s mobile investigation and field documentation platform is used by law enforcement and public safety personnel around the world to securely, accurately and consistently document crime, accident and other incident scenes.

Dubbed ‘public safety’s trusted digital notebook’, the software runs on a smartphone or tablet, enables near real-time communication and provides mission-critical group intelligence between officers in the field, dispatchers, command centres and other public safety and law enforcement agencies.

“Keeping field experts in the field policing and interacting with the community while the information they collect gets shared quickly with colleagues can substantially help law enforcement resolve crimes faster,” said Tom Guthrie, vice president, smart public safety solutions at Motorola Solutions.

“The new frontier of transforming mounds of paper into actionable information that SceneDoc enables will make any profession that relies on field documentation more effective.”

“This funding will enable SceneDoc to realise its goal of being the de facto technology platform that unifies field documentation and communication,” said Alex Kottoor, co-founder and CEO of SceneDoc.

“We’re seeing tremendous demand, on a global scale, from law enforcement and public safety agencies for a mobile-first solution, which both improves field efficiency and enhances communications amongst the officers and numerous agencies that are often called to respond to an incident.”

SceneDoc will use the funding to expand its sales and marketing efforts, bring its investigation and field documentation platform to new global markets and accelerate product development.