What do the following have in common: the entry control systems on the campus of the Free University of Brussels and at the central offices of ING in Amsterdam, the calculation of the time that SNCF trains spend stopped in RER stations, the counting in real time of customers of The Phone House stores and the security of a huge military-industrial complex in Kuwait? All of these customers use automatic image processing software (videosurveillance) designed and marketed by the company ACIC in Mons.

This spin-off, which came straight out of the R & D centre Multitel (Mons Polytechnic and UCL), or more precisely its image processing centre, was started by Doctor of Applied Sciences Jean-François Delaigle, a telecoms civil engineer from UCL (Professor Macq’s laboratories).

As soon as he graduated in 2001 Doctor Delaigle was taken on at Multitel, where he now manages the image processing centre. Two years later, in October 2003, the limited company ACIC was formed. In 2004 the company landed its first major customer with the town of Toulouse. The town initially commissioned the spin-off company to develop a system for detecting…. drivers jumping red lights.

ACIC then gradually emerged from the Multitel laboratories to negotiate new commercial contracts, employing a staff of five in 2005. In mid-2008, ACIC moved to the Initialis business park , into the technological incubator managed by Maison de l’Entreprise. The company now has ten employees, including three Doctors in Applied Sciences (Telecoms and IT) and two salespeople.

Thermal Imaging Cameras

According to its customer’s requirements, ACIC supplies software only or the whole detection system (cables, cameras etc.), with maintenance contract. Through a Belgian business technology integrator based in Kuwait, ACIC has now become a major supplier in this region and is currently in the process of concluding a contract (its third) to maintain the security of a huge military-industrial zone backing onto the sea. To keep the site secure from the seaward side, rotating thermal imaging cameras have been deployed which detect the approach of the smallest vessel 500 metres from the shore, by day or night. This new product, christened "My Panorama Detection", should open up excellent prospects in the Gulf region for this Mons company.

Confidence for 2009

ACIC has also just developed a new application for SNCF which allows the network to maintain its 3000 surveillance cameras remotely. Mostly thanks to these foreign orders, the SME will end 2008 with a turnover of around EUR 800,000. Orders worth hundreds of thousands of Euros have already been taken for 2009, and if ACIC wins the contract for which it is currently tendering the company will probably have fourteen or even fifteen employees by the end of next year.

ACIC’s only real competitors in automatic image processing are based in the United States and in Israel. This means that prospects are still very favourable for the Mons SME in these high growth markets in the Middle East.