If there’s an emergency or other issue the next time you’re crossing a Canadian border, you could receive a broadcast text message. Don’t worry, the feds don’t have your digits. They just have Amika Mobile.
The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) has selected Ottawa-based Amika Mobile’s situational awareness, command and control products for a project. AMS receives sensor events and automatically generates alerts and receives responses from security personnel using the Amika Situation Commander module.
As part of the pilot, Amika and the CBSA will evaluate sending public alerts to people at land border crossings and airports when mobile phone addressing information is unavailable.
“We are keen to work with the CBSA testing out critical alert/response to track events and notifications to groups or en masse. The CBSA is responsible for border crossings where more than 100 million people and 65 million cars and trucks cross annually,” said Amika Mobile CEO Sue Abu-Hakima in a statement.
According to Amika, its AMS solution enables situational awareness, information sharing and rapid two-way communications across devices and networks. It can also control devices through advanced integration with physical security devices, allowing it to issue lockdowns or turn on strobe lights. In an emergency situation, it can trigger alerts through a range of channels, including VoIP, SMS, Pop-ups, web, overhead displays, digital signs, Twitter and tickers based on sensor events from access control, fire panels, camera systems, building automation, government agency or weather alerting feeds and panic buttons.
“We are pleased to be working with Amika Mobile through the Build in Canada Innovation Program. This program allows the CBSA to evaluate new products and solutions which are relevant to the CBSA mandate”, said Diane Keller director general of the science and engineering directorate at the CBSA technology evaluation labs, in a statement.