It’s been a while since we’ve shown off the Prism Skylabs platform and product, especially since we’ve recently revamped the UI and added new features, as well as partnered with providers like 3VR. Thus, we’re hosting an upcoming Webinar on May 1^st at 11 AM PT, where our VP of product management, Bob Cutting, will be on hand to give a demo of the product and answer questions for the audience. For those outside the closed beta program, this is the first opportunity for you to get a closer look at the Prism application, as well as to learn about the benefits of Prism Skylabs for businesses.

Whether you are an integration partner, business owner, employee, press member, or otherwise, we welcome you to register for the webinar to get a sneak peak of the Prism Skylabs application.

With this in mind, we’d like to introduce Dr. Fei-Fei Li, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and head of the Vision Lab at Stanford University, and Dr. Janusz Konrad, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and head of the Visual Information Processing (VIP) Lab at Boston University. Drs Li and Konrad have joined Prism Skylabs’ Advisory Board to guide us as we push the boundaries of what’s possible with video. By incorporating and consulting the brilliant minds of leading experts in the computer vision field, we aim to stay one step ahead of what’s considered cutting edge, thus making our product better and our vision stronger.

Dr. Fei-Fei Li’s focus at the Stanford Vision Lab lies at the intersection of human vision and computer vision, where understanding the mechanisms of human visual perception guides the development of intelligent computer functions such as human motion recognition, scene categorization and integrative scene understanding. Certainly these computer functions can directly relate to Prism Skylabs’ ability to analyze video feeds for insight on foot traffic, spatial mapping and object recognition.

Complementary to Dr. Li’s work, Dr. Janusz Konrad’s research interests include visual sensor networks and image and video processing, compression and transmission. His work with the department’s VIP Lab has yielded well-regarded technology around action recognition and video anomaly detection. One doesn’t need to imagine how Dr. Konrad’s expertise can lend itself to our current models of video processing and compression that make our images not only eye-catching, but also light on data footprint and rich with content about real-world action.

The additions of Drs Li and Konrad mark yet another landmark in Prism Skylabs’ commitment to integrating cutting-edge concepts from video processing and computer vision into our everyday product development. Over the course of our evolution as a company, we will continue to foster an environment of growth and learning at Prism Skylabs, while also contributing to thought leadership and research within the greater academic and scientific communities.

Of course, it wouldn’t be ISC West without some big news to share – and this year is no different. Earlier today, we announced a free plug-in for 3VR’s Video Intelligence Platform (VIP), automatically connecting 3VR’s VIP to Prism Skylabs’ cloud-based service. Check out the press release here.

So what does this mean? Now, all businesses using 3VR will be able to access data from almost any device (iPad, Android, etc.), on any network, as well as back up and archive 3VR content in the cloud. Business owners, loss prevention personnel and other business stakeholders will also be able to publish and share video, heat maps and activity data on social media sites like Facebook, Google and Twitter. And because we’re Prism Skylabs, our unique technology makes all of this possible using very little network resources. Pretty revolutionary stuff if we do say so ourselves.

If you’re interested in learning more about our integration with 3VR, which of course you are, or checking out the live demo (!!) – be sure to stop by the 3VR booth (#22055). And be sure to follow us on Twitter for more action while we’re at ISC West, (@PrismSkylabs or @TheSteveRussell), and search the #ISCW12 hashtag to see what’s happening on the show floor (and the many restaurants and bars that surround it – we all know that’s where the real fun is).

Three bars at the Google Village — Bar 96, Icenhauer’s, and the Lustre Pearl —  were the backdrop of Prism’s product implementation, where real time images were served through our cloud service and broadcast back to displays across the Village.

The result? While visiting Bar96, villagers could see colorful, current, dynamic images of what was going on in the other houses. And on this particularly stormy weekend, they were able to make decisions about where to go next — before having to battle the rain.

We’re not finished with Austin yet, as things are just getting cranked up for the SXSW Accelerator, which we’ll be participating in today at 5 pm CT. Check out the live feed of the presentation at http://sxsw.com/accelerator/live.

Wish us luck!

 Kevin, an avid Giants fan and foodie, balances Prism Skylabs with current Computer Science and Cognitive Science studies, not to mention a spot on the Cal club baseball team.

We talked to Kevin about his background and experience at Prism so far, and here’s what he had to say….

What do you do at Prism Skylabs?

I work closely alongside the engineering team here at Prism. I have been working on the internal dashboard, which allows us to monitor instances and different metrics. With this tool we are able to track the status of machines, whether they are up and working or not, as well as if machines are coming to their storage or memory limit. It also allows for a better visualization of the system as a whole through statistics and graphs.

The internship has been great. I feel like I should be contributing more since the company is moving at such a fast pace. It is a “chill” place to work as it continues to grow. It is my first time at a startup of this size. I think as it continues to grow, the culture will grow and be more lively.

What do you think are the “hot” areas in engineering?

Mobile and Saas Architecture.  With the boom of iOS and Android operating systems and the transition to a smartphone society, the reliance on apps and mobile programs has never been at its greatest.  It is really interesting how many clients can tap into a source to run a particular piece of software at the same time.

How do you think this internship is beneficial for your career as a budding engineer?

Working during the school year has definitely been a challenge at times, but it has taught me to prioritize. The team here has been really flexible about giving me time to work on schoolwork when I need to. I have also learned a lot from the great team here at Prism—skills that I wouldn’t be able to learn in the classroom, like testing, debugging, research, and working on real world projects.

I think the most valuable thing you can do in an internship is try to ask as many questions as you can and learn from the masters of the trade around you. These are the people who have been there before and who know what they are doing. Work hard and try to get as much out of them as you can.

This internship will definitely be useful in the future. I have learned many things on the project I’ve been working on, as well as from asking questions when I’m stuck.

How did you get involved with Prism Skylabs?

I found Prism Skylabs online. After reading the Prism website and watching their TechCrunch Disrupt presentation on YouTube, I was extremely interested in learning more, so I reached out to see if there were any opportunities open.  Fortunately, there were!

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Want to be a part of the Prism Skylabs team?

Prism Skylabs is currently accepting applications for our Summer Internship Program, in addition to general intern candidates, from all levels of study and backgrounds. Whether you’re a Computer Science undergraduate, an Aero/Astro or Computer Vision PhD, a GUI developer, or someone interested in product management, we’d love to hear from you! Just send your resume to jobs@prismskylabs.com.

Over 600 companies applied to participate in this year’s 4^th annual startup competition, all with less than a year under their belt and $5 million in their pockets. What’s more, the SXSW Accelerator is bringing together people from Nairobi, Kenya to Alpharetta, GA to our own backyard, all to present their technologies across innovative web, social media, mobile application, web entertainment, health and news services.

The competition kicks off March 12, and we’ll be there showcasing our technology to a panel of impressive judges and emcees – hello MC Hammer, TechCrunch, Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures! We’ll be measured against other startups on creativity, potential profitability, functionality and team strength over two rounds of demos, with winners identified in each category on March 13.

For more information about the Accelerator, or the list of finalists we’re going up against, check out their website. And if you’re carrying Interactive, Gold or Platinum badges, be sure to stop by and cheer us on!

I was getting tired of the relatively warm January in California, so I ventured to the freezing temperatures of New York City a couple weeks ago and attended the National Retail Federation’s 2012 BIG Show.

For those unfamiliar with the event, exhibitors at NRF are all over the map, but generally fall under the category of technology and retail solution providers. This year I saw a number of vendors in point-of-sale (POS) systems, ERP software, RFID solutions, enterprise retail network solutions, business intelligence and exception-based reporting software, gift card kiosk designers, system integrators and many more. The audience was primarily, of course, retailers of all types and sizes. And let’s just say there were a lot of them.

So what did I take from all the conversations, demos and meandering about the giant showfloor? Well, here are some of my observations…

It was Packed.

My first observation was how packed this show was compared to past NRF conferences.  In my mind, it’s a happy sign of a recovering economy and hopefully an indication that retailers are looking to increase spending to enhance and expand their retail systems in 2012.

Video Analytics and Business Intelligence Solutions were Out in Full Force

There were at least 12 vendors with some form of video-based consumer counting and behavior analysis. And while I’m sure they get a bunch of ‘that’s cool’ responses, for anyone that has gone to the last five years of NRF shows, it seems that there has been no noteworthy performance enhancements.  As a result, vendors (rightfully) have turned to data presentation and integration to find differentiation. The ‘big guys’ that incorporate video analytics into larger systems don’t do a great job. On the other hand, there are a few small players that I tip my hat to that present some solid solutions for data visualization.

Unfortunately, I saw mostly tired looking and overly complex charting engines. It seems that in the quest to be ‘more robust’ these solutions just cram in more data and create more report types, resulting in very cluttered displays. What’s lost – and where I see opportunity – is the clear representation and visualization of data to help retailers make daily decisions, and share that supportive data visually across the enterprise. There are so many better ways to present the data – and how to do that in the best way possible is something we think about daily at Prism.

Google Commanded the Crowd….

Interestingly, large mobs continuously flocked to Google to watch their solution presentations. In addition to the “claw” arcade game that gave away prizes, the audience came to learn about Google Wallet. I sat through the pitch three times myself…once to ask my own questions and twice to see what others were asking. They focused on the consumer side of transactions, and one by one, retailers asking questions heard “No, there’s no extra transactional fees, “No, there is nothing more you have to install” and “No, there are no privacy issues.” You get the point. It was like a collective nodding of the head every time they presented. Well done, Google.

The Utility of Social Media was Overlooked.

My last observation was how little social media played a part in many of the consumer behavior, loyalty, and satisfaction solutions that were on display. After three instances of asking the question “How do you work your clients’ social media data into your dashboard solution?” and receiving blank stare responses, I gave up. I did end up talking to Microstrategy and saw their Wisdom application that leverages Facebook data. They are one example of a business clearly taking steps in the right direction.

In the end, it’s possible that I wasn’t talking to the right folks, but I expected there to be an obvious presence of social media in the countless solutions presented – or at least a response other than silence.

Virtual Dressing Rooms?

As for the ‘cool’ factor, both Microsoft and Cisco were demonstrating eye-opening solutions with what I call their ‘virtual dressing rooms’. I have my own questions about the adoption of such things, but I was impressed by how well these seemed to work. Almost zero glitches.

The virtual dressing rooms made me excited about the state of sensor technology.

The biggest takeaway from my time at NRF? There’s a massive opportunity for new products and players in the world of retail technology. We’ll be rising to take advantage of this opportunity, and we’ll be watching out for those who are also building innovative new products that pick up the slack in business intelligence performance innovation, the lack of a useful organization of data, the oversight of social media and the potential of sensor technology.

When he’s not climbing, running, or cycling – he practically lives on 2 wheels – Mike is leading the charge in getting Prism’s cloud service off the ground. Check out his story below. And remember to stay tuned, as we’ll continue to introduce new faces and show off what makes them tick every so often.

And if you like what you read and think you might have what it takes to join our growing team, we want to meet you. Check out our Jobs Page for available positions or send your resume to jobs@prismskylabs.com.

Now, more about Mike:

Describe your role at Prism Skylabs. 

I’m leading development of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) side of our product. The Software as a Service side of our product is how we organize, store, and retrieve our data such that it can be efficiently consumed by and syndicated to a variety of geographically distributed clients and platforms. I like to think that I’m wearing two hats – one as a lead developer/architect, one as a director of engineering.

What does your work day look like?

My day starts out with an always fun ride down Market St. on MUNI (along with a few others on the team). I’m generally in the office around 9am, with coffee and a salad for breakfast – yep, a salad for breakfast My actual workday is usually a mixture of meetings, development, interviews and brain dumps.

Probably my favorite part of the day is the long-term technical planning meetings – where we think on big, long-term scales and try to paint a picture of how we’d like our software to behave in a perfect world. This is always an invigorating part of the day. The decisions and conversations that occur in our conference room determine the direction and shape of our business for the months and years to come. There’s no such thing as a futile meeting at Prism.

And as if that’s not enough, I’m usually out the door, riding home by 6pm.

With whom do you work on your team, and across other areas of the company?

As a small company and team, I work with literally everyone in the company nearly every day. On the technical side, I work most closely with Aaron, our design lead, Kingston, a web developer, and Noah, a senior developer. On the product side, I find myself working with Bob, Doug, Aaron, Ron and Steve to help define what the Prism product will be and how it will be used.

Talk about what you’re working on right now.

I’m writing up the ‘See’ page for the alpha version of our product. This is the browser-based application that allows a logged-in business user to browse through their video content and select what they’d like to see. In order to maintain a good experience on as many devices as possible, we’re implementing this application as straight HTML/JS/CSS. We’re using Django/jQuery/Backbone.js/ICanHaz.js to do our heavy lifting – the goal is to really only be writing Prism-specific application code. Ideally, our application will be a thin layer on top of more generic tools and libraries.

What’s your background and how has it helped you at Prism Skylabs?

I started doing web development for fun as an undergrad in college at Berkeley. I wasn’t studying CS or EE – rather I was focused on Astrophysics, with additional majors in Physics and Math. But web development really pulled at me – I think because of the ability to reach so many people with your work.

After undergrad, I was lucky to be hired on to OpenDNS as first hire. For the first month or two, it was just me and the CEO. The experience helping grow OpenDNS from two 23-year-olds and a pile of servers on a desk to a profitable company with over 1.5 million users was invaluable.

I left OpenDNS to get a Master’s in CS from Stanford. I finished that up a year ago, but on a daily basis, I still use concepts and patterns I learned at Stanford in my development work.

What’s unique/stands out about the development process at Prism?

We’re very task-oriented rather than role-oriented. We’ve a got a product to build and there’s essentially one BIG to-do list to get it out the door and into the hands of our users. As such, while different engineers do have different areas of expertise here, everyone ends up dabbling in all different areas of the system. Everyone has to read and write access everywhere, and input and help are appreciated throughout the system.

A friend of mine once described one of the pleasures of working at a start-up – “When I push, I can feel the company move.” That’s absolutely true at Prism, and it’s true on both the product and technical sides. Everyone has the opportunity to have a strong role in pretty much whatever part of the process they’re passionate about.

What kinds of tools do you use at Prism?

Sharp ones

We use a big stack of open-source standards-based tools at Prism. Anything that’s not a core part of what Prism is – we should be using a third-party tool to provide that for us, not re-engineering the wheel again. One of our biggest technology choices was whether to go with Ruby/Rails or Python/Django – we’ve chosen Python and Django and haven’t looked back. We’re getting great mileage out of Django and actively committing back to the core.

To do some of our heavy in-browser lifting, we’re using jQuery and Backbone.js, along with ICanHaz.js and Mustache.js to do some client-side templating.

What aspects of your job most inspire you? What aspects have you found challenging?

My most favorite part of my role at Prism is the long-term technical planning. We have some difficult questions to solve – and the brainstorming sessions, where we can think of how we’d like things to work on six months to a year from now, are the most fun for me. It’s nice to define where we’d like to be, and then start creating incremental goals to help us get from here to there.

One of the most challenging aspects of my role at Prism is switching between the technical and product-oriented sides of my role. On the developer side of things, I’m concerned about keeping things simple and graceful. On the product side, I’m concerned about providing a stunning experience for our end user. When these don’t match up (pretty much all the time), I find myself with feet on both sides of the chasm, where maintaining a balance there can be challenging.

Any fun perks associating with working at Prism?

Yes! We have all the remote controlled helicopters, flying sharks, and Nerf guns you could want. We’ve also got the standard beer-stocked fridge and a kitchen equipped with healthy food and a coffee machine.

We make it a point to do Friday team lunches (and not talk about work!) and we’ve done a few off site activities together – a trip to Tahoe, our Christmas party at Bourbon and Branch, partying after TechCrunch Disrupt (we were named runner-up)…fun times.

What advice would you give to someone who’s considering a job at Prism Skylabs?

Send us your resume! No really. What Prism offers most of all is that we’re a small, fast, flexible company with a stellar team focused on a big prize. Prism isn’t a small idea by any means. We’re facing some challenging technical problems to get where we want to be, and if you think you might like to join us and help out, we’d love to hear from you.

Anything additional you want to add?

Our most playful team member: Poncho!

Scammers are hijacking photos, setting up online profiles and taking advantage of non-assuming daters, sometimes robbing them of money and valuable information. As an expert in computer vision and search, Steve explains how you can take control of your privacy on the internet to ensure your face - or the faces of friends, family or a blind date – aren’t hijacked.

Click on the image below to see how you can perform a simple Google image search to detect fraudulent online profiles.

The Internet as we currently enjoy it is under siege. Today, the House Judiciary Committee is meeting to discuss the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act (PIPA). If passed, these bills would essentially overturn the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and would allow the U.S. government to blacklist any website found to have infringing material by inhibiting access using DNS filtering techniques similar to those employed by China and Iran. (You can check more on the specifics here.)

So it’s no wonder our friends at Facebook, Twitter, Google and a number of other companies have expressed their concerns with the legislation so loudly and publicly: http://www.protectinnovation.com/downloads/letter.pdf.

It’s not often that the technology community comes together so passionately to put up a united front against an entity as large as the government. But when Congress is discussing the future of how we use the Internet and how we as a community operate on daily basis, it’s a cause well worth the effort. And as a company that just got its start on July 1 and made up of long-time technologists and company builders, we can’t help but voice our concerns, too.

This legislation threatens not only new technology innovation and emerging companies like Prism Skylabs, but also the continued creations of American jobs. If passed, SOPA and PIPA would also jeopardize the freedom that has fueled our community to make the Internet what it is today. And as one Google employee Derek Parham put it, “…Instead of two guys in a garage you’re going to have two guys in a garage with four lawyers.” That’s a scary thought.

We strongly oppose SOPA and PIPA and encourage our followers to join the collective effort and have a voice in the proposed legislation.

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What can you do to help?

1. Visit Project Innovation to sign the petition against SOPA and PIPA.

2. Fill out this form on Tumblr and get connected to your House Representative so you can tell them what you think.

3. Write a blog post in support and share your opinion with colleagues, friends and family.