Security technology developed for airports adapted for home use

In the 1990s, officials at a firm called Ross & Baruzzini in St. Louis developed a special system of video cameras and software to provide security monitoring at airports. The technology helped detect irregularities in movement, such as people trying to sneak into secured areas without going through screening.

Then officials at the engineering and government-contracting firm wondered whether they could adapt the technology to a consumer market.

The company spun off the effort into a separate enterprise, Cernium in Reston, which developed a monitoring system designed to send alerts and video clips to people's cellphones and e-mail inboxes if something is amiss at home while they are away.

The products are hitting the market now. Cernium first began selling the devices on Amazon.com. Then in May, Costco.com began stocking them, and Cernium said it is negotiating with the discount warehouse retailer to sell the products in stores. Systemax, the company that acquired the rights to the brands of shuttered retailer CompUSA, said it is selling the products at stores it has recently reopened.

There is a myriad of home security products on the market, from webcams allowing people to keep tabs on their children's nannies to video cameras that can provide footage of their homes' exterior from every conceivable angle.

What differentiates Cernium products, officials assert, are features providing automatic monitoring to users, saving them the trouble of keeping constant tabs on the feeds and footage.

The Cernium system "uses computers to watch the video instead of having [consumers] do it," said Craig Chambers, Cernium's president and chief executive.

Cernium's two security products -- a less-expensive wireless system called the Archerfish Solo and the higher-end, hard-wired Archerfish Quattro -- allow users to set the parameters for the alerts. For instance, they can get an e-mail if a person passes in front of an exterior camera at the front door between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on weekdays. Users can also employ the system, Chambers said, to alert them when their latchkey children get home from school or to make sure their gardeners do the work they're paid to do.

So far, he said, sales have been strong.

"We've been able to sustain some pretty high ranking since the product became available a few weeks ago," Chambers said. "It was number two on Amazon early this week among security system products."

Cernium was established in 2001 in St. Louis. Four years later, it relocated to Reston to be close to its main customer, the federal government.

The home security products are manufactured in Tempe, Ariz., and China.

The company's workforce doubled to 50 during the past five years, and Chambers said he expects it will hire more employees if demand grows.

Industry officials say technology developed for the government often finds its way into consumer hands eventually.

"There are literally thousands of products developed for government that found a consumer niche," said Trey Hodgkins, vice president for national security and procurement policy at Arlington-based TechAmerica, which represents about 1,500 technology companies.

"GPS is a great example of technology created for military use that has evolved for consumer use," Hodgkins added. "And there are all kinds of adhesives, lubricants, batteries, power cells and mobile wireless devices that came out of the space industry and military."

Add to the list Cernium's video cameras.