SELTECH, Corporation: AI and IoT Security for the Future

In the global consumer market, two trends will rule the future narrative—internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). The two will redefine consumer engagement and experience; and being such, companies around the world are rallying to find the best-of-breed technologies to fuel their initiatives. However, one common apprehension takes the driving seat— security. Tokyo-based SELTECH touches all the above and cuts a business’s technology exploration journey short with only two products (VAIS and FOXvisor) that have promising utility across all the three areas. In each category, SELTECH provides data analysis and service development together with a secure environment. “We have heavily invested in and are engaged in research and development utilizing VAIS and FOXvisor with various Japanese companies ranging from automotive and smart home industry to ‘Connected Industries’ new vision for the future of Japanese industries. That enables Humans, Machines, and Technologies to be CONNECTED across borders and generate NEW VALUE continuously,” says Shoi Egawa, President and CEO of SELTECH.

It is clear that the future consumer equipment will be connected to social infrastructure, leaving behind a trail of preference patterns that will allow companies to offer more personalized experience to their customers.

There are predictions which Egawa agrees with: The houses and cars of 2020 will learn a certain level of human behavior; voice will replace operation of equipment by a switch, and the day will come when the operation will be automated by sensors and behavioral habits instead of voice. SELTECH’s VAIS is a step in this very move toward the future. The platform is a user experience (UX) service for the automobile industry and IoT products and comprises of pre-processing (image analysis, speech analysis, data analysis, among others) algorithm for UX, and an algorithm to decide how it relates to human behavior. By analyzing human behavior from IoT equipment and analyzing it in combination with appropriate data, VAIS can realize services that can be used for recommendations, home automation, and healthcare. Using deep neural network to process big data efficiently is a trend today. However, it might be highly complex to completely comprehend—mainly due to the limited volume of data generated—what an individual wants. In that case, VAIS offers advanced personal assist model to decode an individual’s needs and preferences better. SELTECH collects data from each network device and allows consumers to select the disclosure/non-disclosure of the data. By disclosing data, AI makes an appropriate recommendation.

While the picture painted by IoT and AI is undoubtedly enchanting, a more correct description will be better represented by the word ‘beguiling.’ Automated conduits of data will be the treasure chests with high degrees of security vulnerability. And, using security measures of conventional computers or mobile phones will not serve a viable option due to cost constraints, and the fact CPUs of IoT devices will only manage a small task such as turning a motor, adjusting power, or lighting a screen. This is where SELTECH’s proprietary bare-metal hypervisor, FOXvisor, enters the picture. Requiring only one percent CPU usage and 32 KB memory, the technology can store network services in ordinary domains and highly confidential data in secure domains. It improves robustness of functions that are highly convenient as well as firmware updates and that are easily targeted by malicious attackers. “FOXvisor makes it possible to develop a secure system with AI system in a secure domain,” Egawa adds.

The company aims to deploy packaged products with IoT device security and AI in Japan and is currently working with a housing company for large-scale deployments. Egawa informs that there are chances of VAIS and FOXvisor being deployed in partnership with infrastructure companies as well, and being offered for the U.S. and Chinese markets. He believes that services that match people’s characteristics will be the future; and for that day SELTECH appears to be well endowed with its technology.