Atlanta-based VistaScape Security Systems, a security software developer, has contracted with the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection to test its automated intrusion detection software along a 12-mile stretch of the New Mexico–Mexico border.

The incorporation of VistaScape’s technology is aimed at preventing border crossings by illegal immigrants, drug traffickers and potential terrorists, according to Glenn McGonnigle, CEO of VistaScape.

            VistaScape’s propriety software, Security Data Management System, will automate the video-monitoring, threat analysis and threat response tasks now performed by border patrol agents at one of the bureau’s border checkpoints in New Mexico.

            The system, which interprets the data images fed by camera to the border patrol control room, is able to differentiate between a human crossing the U.S. border from Mexico and a coyote, Mr. McGonnigle told GlobalFax.

            He said the software is also sophisticated enough to detect whether grass in the video camera’s scope is moving because of wind or because someone is crawling through it.

            The technology is designed to free border patrol agents from the tedious task of video-monitoring and also reduces human error in interpretation and response.

            “It’s like having an army of perfect security guards that never blink,” he said.

            VistaScape’s system can also monitor seismic sensors placed on the border by the customs and border agents to register seismic activity from trucks and footfall, Mr. McGonnigle explained.

            He added that the software can be tweaked to register and implement specific policies in place at different areas along the border.

            For example, in some areas, the system will alert agents when a truck comes within a one-mile radius of the border and in other areas when trucks come within a half-mile, depending on the dictates of each border checkpoint.

            He said that the company’s technology is also in use at several naval ports, as well as at Logan International Airport in Boston.

            Building on the test pilot along the New Mexico border, Mr. McGonnigle said VistaScape hopes to expand its contract with the customs and border protection bureau to other parts of the 7,200 miles of border the U.S. shares to the north with Canada and with Mexico, to the south.

            VistaScape was launched as a video-monitoring and surveillance technology company in 1999.  Since 2001, it has concentrated on developing the intrusion detection and analysis software.

            For more information, contact VistaScape’s offices at (678) 919-1130.