MWC25 | Brian Pemberton, Keocam

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Brian Pemberton

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Keocam

play_circle_outline Keocam: world's first personal dash cam for personal safety and security

play_circle_outline Securing Data Through Edge and Cloud Technology, Backed Up with Camera and Phone Copies

play_circle_outline Compliance with government regulations for recording in public spaces

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Brian Pemberton, Keocam

Brian Pemberton

CEO Keocam

Brian Pemberton MWC25 Barcelona

Join Savannah Peterson as she interviews Brian Pemberton, founder of Keocam, at MWC25 in Barcelona. Pemberton, a visionary in personal safety technology, discusses the development and evolution of Keocam, a unique personal dash cam designed for real-time protection and evidence recording. Conducting the interview is theCUBE's team of experienced analysts, exploring the challenges and breakthroughs in hardware development and partnership dynamics.

Pemberton shares insights into the cutting-edge combination of e... Read more

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What are the benefits of having a personal dash cam that records in a permanent loop, allowing for context before and after events, and doesn't require protection of data like a traditional dash cam inside a car or used by a police officer? add

What security features does the device mentioned in the text have to ensure the safety and preservation of evidence in case of an attack? add

What are the regulations surrounding the use of dash cams in different countries, specifically in America and Europe? add

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Brian Pemberton, Keocam

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>> Good afternoon, hardware fans, and a welcome back to beautiful Barcelona, Spain. We're here coming to the close of day three of our four days of live coverage on theCUBE. My name's Savannah Peterson and I am particularly and personally thrilled to be bringing you this next segment with not only an incredibly smart founder, but one of my dear friends. Brian, thank you so much for taking the time to do this with me.

>> Savannah, it's an honor. Thank you very much for having me.

>> I feel like this is an incredible full-circle moment. I remember when you called me over five years ago-

>> Yes, that's true....

>> to tell me about this idea you had for a personal body cam, it was great that you were reaching out to me, specifically for women who were, say, on a run at night to be able to have footage of anything bad that happened and to get these perps off the street. Now, I know the product development has evolved a lot. So, to warm us up, explain what Keocam is and what's on the table here in front of us.

>> Okay. So, what we have here is the world's first personal dash cam. And like a dash cam in your car, it's recording in a permanent loop. Now, what's important about a permanent loop is the fact that you've got context. So, if you're able to go back in time, you can show what happened to you before an event, and then with an ongoing recording, what happened to you after an event. The same way as you never know when a car is going to cut you up, and therefore, the dash cam's footage is doing that. That's essentially what we're doing. Now, what's cool about our device is unlike a dash cam, you need to protect that data. It's not inside a car or a police officer-

>> Right, with his body cam.

>> He's got a big body cam, but people tend to be running away from a police officer.

>> Correct.

>> If you're a female who's suffering an attack, there's someone coming at you. So, if they try to throw that camera away, what do you do with the evidence? So, we've put a patented solution together, and this is part of the evolution that's happened over five years, whereby you now have two copies of the evidence. You've got a copy on the camera and a copy on your phone at all times. And I-

>> This is a really great combination of edge and cloud. We've been talking about that a lot here at the show, and that's really critical and that's happening instantaneously.

>> That's right. That's right. So, always got two copies at any one time. Then, if you are feeling insecure or you want to trigger an incident, the smartphone sends that data up to the cloud and then you've got a third copy, which is safe, cannot be deleted for 72 hours and the camera cannot be turned off either. So, you have to physically break the camera because the power button has been locked down, the mobile app has been locked down, so you have to put in your secure codes in order to stop the incidents and stop the camera recording and going back into what we call eyes on mode, which is just that regular loop recording. So, we've tried to cover as many bases as we can.

>> Well, and that really matters because if someone is, unfortunately, attacking someone or something's going on there, you basically need to have a panic room or a safe room for that data, for that video, for the images that the device picked up. I can imagine that's been a really interesting challenge. When you proposed this idea to me, I will admit-

>> Here we go.

>> You knew this was coming. I will admit that when you proposed this idea to me, I was skeptical of the ability, not your personal ability, the ability of anyone... The availability, I should say, of components at a price that was going to be consumer-friendly and also stick on. And if you notice, I'm wearing mine right now and I've had it on all day. I put it on the restaurant when you showed me originally. I am very impressed with the stability. You've clearly done a lot of testing. Some of the early reference designs you sent me, I remember were quite big and chunky and unique, but as is every hardware .

>> Oh, we started as well with a two-piece design as well, which-

>> I remember that little .

>> You quickly told me that wasn't a good idea. But yeah, it's been an evolution for sure. And like anything, you've got to try stuff out and working with various partners to see what's going to work, what isn't going to work? We're very fortunate to work with, and again, friends of yours, Smartcom. They've been an amazing partner for us for the cloud and the app side and with all the tracking elements and so on, because of course, not only are we sending video footage, but we're sending the GPS location and that kind of data up to the cloud as well.

>> I mean, this is an absolute game changer for personal safety. I mean, obviously, it's sensitive and I bring up the example of me as a woman who loves to run and does occasionally do that in the wee hours in the morning when it's very dark and less safe sometimes than, say, the middle of the day. However, there's a lot of industrial applications. I can see worker safety. Who are you trying to reach with this product?

>> One of the beauties of coming to Mobile World Congress is the ability to meet people from the industry, trade, all sorts of different walks of life. I was just chatting to a gentleman from Saudi Arabia. He was talking very much along the lines you're suggesting, which is, "Well, we have security guards going through these huge shopping malls, but do we need necessarily super professional solutions or would you just need something that's easy to wear, simple to use?" They all have smartphones, which are through the company and things like that. So, he was interested to go that way. We started out with female runners in mind because there's a clear need there, and that's definitely something that I want to make happen. And then, women's safety in general, minority groups in society of course, and of course there's an enterprise. Now, the enterprise question usually comes down to battery life.

>> Right. And this is a very small form factor, as I'm sure people can see. What is the battery life now? Do you think there's a possibility to make a more bulky version for that longer battery life? Talk to me about that.

>> Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, currently, we've got a slim form factor of around about 12 mil.

>> It's quite small.

>> And the magnet fits on the back through clothing, as you know. So, really, what we're looking at is we are kind looking at a Keocam Pro, which will be that bit thicker and the rest of the space is just taken up with battery. So, we are going from a three-hour battery life to probably something closer to seven to eight hours.

>> A proper work day, which makes a lot of sense. Now, I know one of the things that I really respect about your founder journey is you've been incredibly vigilant about not only picking your partners, like Smartcom with the cloud, but you've also had to do a lot of work on the hardware side and picking the right partners and building out your team. You were not satisfied with what you were able to find in the beginning, and you actually went and sourced your brain power and a lot of great things from Bangladesh. Tell me a little bit about that journey.

>> Yeah, multiple partners we've spoken to. And as you know, I'm based in Hong Kong, just over the road from Shenzhen. You would think everything you need is going to be there.

>> Right, right. That's why I pointed out. You are kind of in the epicenter of the supply chain. You are the supply chain essentially at that point. So, what was so unique about Bangladesh? How did you find the team and how did this all come together?

>> Well, I think it ultimately came down to just getting out there and talking to people, not being afraid to keep it quiet and to yourself, asking around, "Do you know anybody who's got good developers? How do we find the right people?" It doesn't look like I'm able to get what I want from Shenzhen because they tended to be stuck in their ways. They were thinking about sports cameras and sports cameras do a fabulous job-

>> I was wondering what the relation between a GoPro, for example, and this journey. I would imagine they wanted to shove you into that form factor as well.

>> Right. But then, the power efficiency is so much worse because you're doing 4K video and all this kind of stuff. We don't need that for our application. We need as low power as possible, so you can keep it slim and keep the battery life at a reasonable level. So, we found that we couldn't find the partners who are willing to really just get into the weeds of it and find the right components and start from scratch. I was introduced to our partner business in Bangladesh, and they were the complete opposite. They were like, "Hey, let's have a look at it. We can't make any promises because we simply don't know, but we're going to have a look. Give us a month. We're going to do a feasibility study, see what we can find and we'll come back to you." And that was the beginning of it. So, now, yeah, I'm going to be spending a lot of time in Bangladesh and the team's brilliant. I love them to bits and there's no such thing as no. It's just, "Let's give it a go. Let's find out." So, yeah, they've been a fantastic partner to work with.

>> Yeah, you could tell I smiled with my BFF heart when I saw that photo of you and the team on launch day just a few weeks ago. I understand what an massive milestone that is. And I say this lovingly, looking at you, you are not always the demographic that necessarily encounters the most riff-raff on the streets, if you'll say?

>> That's true. That's a fair point.

>> What made you so passionate about creating this?

>> I've met people and colleagues over the years who've had poor experiences for their own safety, and that's left an impression with me. I've also worked at Timex and we were looking at running watches and that kind of thing, and the issue of women's safety came up just in the background then, as to women aren't safe and is there anything we can do with a GPS watch and that kind of thing. Then, my career moved away from Timex and it gave me the opportunity to focus on other projects. So, yes, that was a start. And then, what really drove it home is the fact that my niece was punched in the face in public.

>> Oh, my god.

>> Yeah,

>> I'm so sorry to hear that.

>> She's a lovely girl and very pretty, and some guy was hassling her, wouldn't leave her alone and she just didn't want to give up her phone number. And for whatever reason he decided the response to that is to sock her one in the eye, so-

>> Oh, I'm not surprised he has trouble getting women's phone numbers. So-

>> It got personal then, Savannah.

>> Yes, I can imagine it got personal and that's an unfortunate, but very real use case. To your point, you don't always know when these things are going to happen. This has to be continually recording and knowing exactly where you were. If you're out in the wilderness and something happens, I'm out there with my camper van or a lot of different things, it's really hard to track. That GPS has to be one of the features that makes this particularly unique, right?

>> Yeah, we have all sorts, tracking. You're able to send your location as well just while you're using the camera. So, similar to say Strava would be able to send a tracking location to your friends and family while you're running, we have that capability here in this. And then, of course if you hit an emergency, then they're able to actually see the video and your location live. So, they can either look for help in terms of the authorities or they could try to get you themselves. Yeah. And I think it's important here is it's not just for... Some people might say, "Well, this is only for people who are shy and retiring and are worried all the time about themselves." No, this is just about another layer of security, the same way as you might carry pepper spray or even think about it in your home. You've got lights in the garden, you've got locks on your windows, you've got the indoor security cameras and so on. This is just another layer of security for your own personal security. It's nothing to be ashamed of. At the end of the day, people behave differently when they know they're being recorded, it's a fact.

>> I don't know what you're talking about, as we sit here with six high-definition cameras surrounding us. No, you're absolutely right about that. I am curious, I hadn't actually thought to ask you this before, are there any hurdles for you in terms of government regulations for recording without consent?

>> So, yeah, great point. So, rule of thumb, if you're allowed to use a dash cam in your car, then you should be okay in the country of your choice. We could talk about individual countries. But overall, in America it's not a problem at all. You are entitled to record in public spaces and it's not unreasonable to think that you should or have an expectation of being recorded when you're in public. More or less the same in Europe. There are data protection laws, of course in Europe, which are more stringent, but what we're doing here is we are recording in a loop. We're not recording, storing and then transmitting that to a broader audience that nobody... If I'm recording you and somebody halfway around the world is watching it, you've got no idea who that person is, then of course you're beginning to get into gray areas. We're not doing that. We record for one-minute loop, then it's refreshed. And when it goes to the cloud, it's your own private cloud, so it's not available to the masses. So, we are, as we understand it, the legal side of it, we are covered from that point of view.

>> And it makes a lot of sense. And you're also not storing the aggregate data of all of these different users to a point where there would be some sort of weird pattern matching you could do from that. I mean that makes a lot of sense. What-

>> And of course, using the cloud and using the upload technology and so on, it's all encrypted, so we've got to make that safe, got to make sure that other people aren't able to see it as well. So, those kinds of measures are also being put into place.

>> Absolutely. I'm coming back to the design for a second, just because it really does feel good. I realize the audience can't touch this right now, but hopefully they will have theirs soon. But I'm used to having a lavalier mic or other bits of hardware on me, particularly for being on camera. I wouldn't notice this, and that's really saying something. And I'm a average-chested woman, and I can understand there's a lot of design challenges when it comes to particularly something that's going to be worn on this part of the body, male or female, or any gender. What was your R&D process like for this really strong magnetic bond you have here that really feels good?

>> Yeah, the principle we've been going for, which has been challenging, is as slim as possible. And I've spent many an hour jumping up and down in front of the mirror to see how much is moving-

>> Do we have any footage of this?

>> I'm sure there is somewhere on the house security cameras. But yeah, we've been going really for as slimmer form factor as possible because that way it would appear that it's not going to be dragging, and then also-

>> That's what I noticed right away. I was expecting a little bit of a pull and it's not there at all. In fact, I mean it's sitting very flush on my skin right now, and I can tell that running, I'm not going to get irritated or a rash or a bruise from something that's bigger and bulky.

>> And I think also, it's important that the backplate is as broad as the camera itself. So, again, you're using as much surface area as possible to grip the fabric, because of course, running a tire for women or anybody these days, these light fabrics, these sweat-wicking , they're really lightweight

>> Very much.

>> We have had to really look into that. Now, it is a bit boxy, generation one, and we do have some great design resource that we are looking into. So, come the final product in November, we're going to be refining these things. And of course, taking feedback from our beta users.

>> Hi. Hello. I'll be reporting. You know I'll give you my feedback.

>> Absolutely.

>> I've given you a lot of feedback on this product over the last five years. What does it feel like for you to finally be able to share this with the world?

>> Nerve-wracking.

>> I can imagine.

>> Because as you can imagine, you've been in startups and so on yourself. You get to the point where you've been working so hard and you're in this mode of head down and get it done. And then, you suddenly break through and you're out into the public, and so now people can actually judge you. They can say, "This is a silly idea," or, "Oh, isn't that great?" So, yes, it's been nerve wracking, but the response here at Mobile World Congress has been really good.

>> That's what I was just going to ask. Tell me what you've been hearing. What's the hallway conversations when people first see it?

>> Yeah. No, we've been delighted. People have been very complimentary. This tends to be a more technical show than a consumer show, so obviously, the feedback has been about, "Oh, well, it'd be great if you could do us an industrial version." So, that's definitely now on the cards. And we won one of the awards. We've entered a couple of awards. We got some notification we won one.

>> What was the award that you won?

>> Techlicious Award for Innovation.

>> Wow.

>> We entered the wearable category as well for another award. I don't know how that went. Fingers crossed.

>> We've got our fingers crossed.

>> Maybe find out tomorrow.

>> Got our fingers crossed for you. When you think about this product, do you think it's going to be able to truly protect your niece and help the family as your family grows as well?

>> I think so, yeah. So, I've got a daughter, of course, Maya. So hello, Maya. She's 10 years old. I've got a son as well, Alex. So, yeah, I hope so. We have a thing on the website, which is, "The unnerving power of a flashing light." When the camera's working, it has these green lights that are alternating and it does have that kind of unnerving quality because you immediately then associate that with something recording. And that's really what we're out to do is to... Again, our intention is not to have somebody wear this at 24 hours a day. It's there for if you're on the last train home and there's you and a couple of other people in the car and you're feeling a little, "Oh, this is the best of situations," or you're running late at night, you're walking a dog in a park and it's quiet around you. It's these kinds of situations where you just want that extra layer of security around you. And these aren't situations where you're expecting to be interacting with lots of people and so on.

>> Right. Yeah, yeah. No, it absolutely makes a lot of sense. How can people find out more? Where will they be able to order this?

>> Thank you for the plug opportunity. So, keocam.com, K-E-O cam dot com. Stands for Keeping Eyes On, by the way, which is what we're building the technology to do, have that eye in the background, always watching. So, yeah, on there there is a contact form, so if you're interested in finding out anything about us, please leave a message and we'll get back to you.

>> You almost sounded like an old answering machine right there. All right. Last question for you, Brian. When we're back at the show next year in 2026, what do you hope to be able to say then that you can't yet say today?

>> Well, I mean, of course I would hope to say that we've sold our first 100,000 units, we're in-market, we've successfully launched in multiple markets around the world, not just the obvious ones like United States and parts of Europe. And also, I think what would be nice is if we are beginning to get the message out there to see that there are better ways of going about helping public safety. So, fingers crossed.

>> Absolutely.

>> So far, it's looking positive. I hope we can continue the momentum.

>> Yeah, definitely. I can see a very bright future for you, Brian.

>> I appreciate it and for all the support over the years.

>> It's always going to come from this gal with you. I got to say, really, truly congratulations on the launch.

>> Thank you.

>> Hats off to your perseverance, especially in the face of feedback from someone as spicy as me sometimes. And quite frankly, as someone lucky to call you a friend, I am so proud of you.

>> Thank you. That means a lot. Thank you very much.

>> Yes, thank you so much for coming to hang out with us too.

>> Oh yeah, it's been fun.

>> I know it's a busy week for you, so this has been absolutely great. I hope all of you have had as much fun watching this fabulous segment and go check out Keocam at keocam.com. We're here in Barcelona, Spain at the end of day three of four days of live coverage. You're watching theCUBE, the leading source for enterprise tech news.