Our Kaimi™ multi-source data integration and relationship analysis software is featured in action on the National Geographic Channel program "Casino Wars", which premiered Oct 21, 2011. Check your local cable listings or the NGC website for program times and dates.
If one word best captures the 21CSI story it is “transformation.” Since our inception on April 16th, 1996 as a university-based start-up, 21CSI has evolved to focus on applying leading-edge research to software product development in helping to solve operational problems for a wide range of government and commercial intelligence, security and surveillance customers world-wide. While it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, we’ve seen our company grow from its university-based roots to where we are today: As a recognized leader in the R&D and product commercialization of automated intelligence tools, and real-time end-to-end software solutions that significantly improve data resolution, decision accuracy and response time.
Now, on the eve of our 15th anniversary, we would like to take a moment to reflect on our past successes, while looking ahead to our future in commercial software solutions and technology development.
First, we would like to sincerely thank the myriad partners, customers, organizations, and individuals – especially our dedicated and talented staff – who have helped make it all possible, and will help make possible the next 15 years of 21CSI’s growth and success. There are too many to name here, but please know we are deeply grateful for your support, and your confidence and trust in us, and our work.
21CSI has consistently sought to apply leading-edge software technologies as practical solutions for customers dealing with the difficulties of time- and mission-critical operations. Our early and continued R&D successes, with 70 Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) -based contract awards under our belt to-date, clearly enabled us to grow well past our humble startup beginnings. Indeed, 21CSI was twice recognized for its high-growth and small enterprise success as a member of the Inc. 500 list of 500 fastest growing small companies, as a direct result of our SBIR-based R&D focus.
It’s the follow-on commercialization efforts to our SBIR early-stage research – applying our research to solve real-world problems for customers – that have really propelled our transformation. This is what excites us most, and has enabled us, for example, to partner with a top-tier prime integrator as the software provider, compete with the best technology in the world for whole-country border electronic security systems, and win. In recognition of our high rate of SBIR commercialization versus our peers, we received the Small Business Administration’s Tibbetts Award in 2006.
But, we can’t rest on our laurels because time, technology and opportunities race onward. As author Bruce Barton once said, “When you are through changing, you are through.” Our aspirations are ambitious, and we are entering a new phase of 21CSI’s ongoing transformation, as we look to spin off several SBIR research-derived product lines into independent companies, and to take our technologies into the global market arena. Much has to happen to get there, let alone succeed long-term, but 21CSI is well positioned to deliver on these opportunities and more, with a superbly talented team of top-shelf engineers, scientists, subject matter experts, and product and project specialists. Not to mention superb customers, and partners.
With that, from all of us at 21CSI, we look forward to serving you, our government and commercial customers and partners well into the future. Again, thank you all for your support!
Jeffrey D. Hicks
Chairman and CEO
After spending nearly $1 billion dollars and five years on the now defunct virtual border fence project known as SBInet, DHS is still actively seeking to build a high tech virtual border along the southern border; this time, DHS is determined to purchase technology that meets performance standards and is delivered on time and at cost; DHS hopes to invest an additional $750 million to purchase mature sensor and surveillance technology; to ensure the project’s success,
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Kaimi software was a featured product demo’d during Cornstalks Demo Night. You can check out the demonstration here Cornstalks Demo Night - 21CSI.
For more information about entrepreneurs in the Midwest check out Silicon Prairie News.
For the fourth year in a row, 21st Century Systems, Inc (21CSI) has ranked in the top five Research and Development (R&D) entities in Nebraska, according to The Alliance for Science and Technology Research in American (ASTRA). In 2011, 21CSI ranked fourth, behind two units of Raytheon and the University of Nebraska. Our research and development success is a direct result of our Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) efforts. The SBIR program provides opportunities for small businesses, such as 21CSI, to compete along side of the big companies.
We do it better than most. The Department of Defense calculates that, of companies performing Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) work, 21CSI is in the 100th percentile for transitioning projects beyond the basic research phase. 21CSI has occupied this top 100th percentile position for five years running.
In 2010, 21CSI received six new Phase I SBIR awards and two Phase II awards:
- TRANSURV Phase II - US Army
- Video20/20 Phase II - US Air Force
- AELEIS - US Army
- SMIRF – US Navy
- Sys-ADE - DTRA
- Causal View – US Army
- Augur – US Navy
- M-VIISR – US Navy
21CSI continues to have a solid reputation for providing successful SBIR projects. The year 2011 looks to be just as strong as ever for 21CSI’s Research and Development efforts. In the first quarter of 2011, 21CSI has been awarded one SBIR Phase II and one SBIR Phase I.
- SMIRF Phase II – US Navy
- AMADEUS - US Air Force
- MADOC – US Army
Kaimi software provided by 21st Century Systems, Inc will soon make its television debut on the National Geographic Channel. National Geographic will show the cutting edge technologies used inthe casino surveillanceindustry today. The filming took place at The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City in late March and will air sometime during late summer.
21st Century Systems, Inc has been received its 69th SBIR award for Measure and Alert on Data Omitted by Compression (MADOC). This is one of many awards received from the US Army.
Critical information can be lost when lossy compression techniques are used in bandwidth limited environments, such as from unmanned systems. More serious, this lost information is unknown to the analyst, which can lead to incorrect analysis and potentially fatal conclusions. 21st Century Systems, Inc will use its expertise in video analysis will develop a technology that will alert alert data analysts, in real-time, when information in compressed video has information omitted. This technology, MADOC (Measure and Alert on Data Omitted by Compression), would allow the user to view, in near real-time, the information apparently lost during transmission, but available from raw data. The MADOC concept combines a solid understanding of the relationship between the loss of information in compressed imagery and the compression algorithm, an innovative mechanism for objectively alerting the analyst on the current information lost due to compression, and an intelligent user interface that will someday provide an intuitive method for the analyst to request and keep an accurate view in a sub-region or on an object of interest. Our extensive expertise and experience in video analysis, combined with our perfect SBIR commercialization rating, makes 21CSI the company most likely to get this crucial capability into the hands of the warfighter.
21st Century Systems, Incorporated (21CSI) is proud to announce that we have been awarded our 28th Small Business Innovation Research Phase II contract, this one supporting the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). Following a successful Phase I effort demonstrating technical feasibility of our concept, 21st Century Systems,
Inc. is continuing development of a multimodal video fusion capability, providing a single, relevant picture with increased contrast for salient maritime targets while reducing clutter. Smart Multimodal Image Registration and Fusion (SMIRF) will produce a higher contrast composite image through selective fusion of multiple sensor modalities regionally within each image. SMIRF combines state-of-the-art image enhancement, real-time cross-modality registration, advanced saliency detection, proven image fusion methods, and a decision-making engine to create a dynamic real-time multimodal, locally optimal region-based video fusion solution. SMIRF’s adaptive approach allows it to intelligently choose “the right tools for each job,” rather than forcing the same solution in every situation. SMIRF will improve the safety of submarine transit and surface operations for those modern submarine surface imaging systems that have multiple camera modes, such as optical, infrared, and more.
21CSI and iView Systems have teamed up to bring Kaimi to casinos all over the world. iView Systems is a distributor of Kaimi Software. iView Systems sees the importance of correlating disparate data and providing the casino surveillance teams with the right data at the right time. 21CSI is proud to have iView as a distribution partner.
iView Systems addresses the needs of multiple industries for a single desktop incident management and reporting system, providing both an incident and subject centric solution. iView's core product (iTrak) was developed with extensive consultation with the security and surveillance marketplace. iView Systems has rapidly attained industry recognition for its unique solutions and now provides incident reporting, dispatch and visitor management platforms and services to the global security marketplace, including the gaming, banking, corporate security and other loss prevention environments. iView Systems is dedicated to maintaining a consultative process with its clients to ensure that all deployments are optimized to meet their specific requirements, through design, configuration, deployment and post deployment project processes. iView Systems is located in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.
The U.S. Navy recently notified 21st Century Systems, Inc. (21CSI), a Nebraska small business, of their intent to award them two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I contracts.
The first effort is to research and develop Augur, a smart Human Intelligence (HUMINT)-processing capability. Augur is a merger between the power of collaborative software, evidential reasoning, and the current state of the art in information extraction techniques. Augur technology, when mature, will be used in multiple command and control and intelligence assessment applications within the DoD. Augur will permit HUMINT collections to be rapidly corroborated and placed into context, creating opportunities and improving decisions through actionable intelligence. 21CSI has extensive experience in researching and developing decision support technologies including within the intelligence domain. The Augur technology will provide two powerful payoffs: first is the sharing and fusing of information amongst analysts and planners. Second, Augur, when combined in a modern Intelligence Analyst’s software tool suite, will enable a more rapid evaluation, comparison, and aggregation of HUMINT data with other intelligence data, a “meeting of the INTs,” so to speak. Augur will utilize an agent-based framework combined with powerful machine learning and evidential reasoning, creating a tool that will greatly improve HUMINT processing operations.
The second effort is to research and develop a Modular Video Interface for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) or M-VIISR. The M-VIISR concept calls for a secure flexible interface for processing multiple full motion video and metadata types from UAVs simultaneously, and presenting the results to the operator in a human understandable way. M-VIISR, by being able to handle several types of ISR input simultaneously, in a modular fashion, aims to simplify ISR work by providing consistency amongst the various systems. In addition, the modular design will allow for new hardware, sensors, and standards to be taken into account. Reduced training time and deployment time are also important advantages of this consistent ISR framework for UAV-based and other sensors. 21CSI has considerable expertise in video and image analysis and has developed its own VisionAgent®/VisionServer® video analytics framework.
These Phase I awards represent the 66th and 67th Phase I SBIR/STTR awards since 21CSI's inception over 14 years ago. Based in Omaha with offices around the country, 21CSI develops decision support software to help users manage complex, high-stress, rapidly changing environments through sound, computer-assisted data monitoring and decision making. Intelligent agents embedded in these systems enable the software to adapt, respond, and learn from individual users in a variety of different situations.
