Producer has an eye for technology

Seth Cirker always had a passion for film, so after graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1988, he headed for Hollywood and helped produce two movies -- "The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland" in 1999, and Oliver Stone's 1997 "U-Turn."

But, said Cirker, now 44, "Hollywood is something you do when you're younger."

Cirker, however, never lost his passion for the camera.

A Port Washington-based company Cirker started in 2007, SituCon Systems Inc., has developed a camera that may well resolve some of the issues surrounding peoples' desire for both security and privacy. SituCon's camera, called SituCam, has built-in "eyelids."

The camera's eyes are closed, but at the push of a button, worn around a person's neck for example, they open when needed, and emergency notifications are sent to school administrators, police or first-responders. The software details who pressed the button and where that person is.

SituCon is wrapping up a pilot program that began in 2008 in which its cameras are being used in two Port Washington school buildings, the Nassau County Chapter of the AHRC in Brookville, and in two Massachusetts municipalities -- Brookline and Marshfield.

"The technology has been accepted anywhere privacy was an issue," said Cirker, SituCon's chief executive.

Privacy was a major issue in Brookline, said Brookline police officer Scott Wilder, director of the department's technology office. Citizens opposed round-the-clock cameras as Big Brother-ism. But an attempted abduction of a young girl by two men changed peoples' minds. The men were caught on a police camera.

SituCon is now seeking to market its cameras to the health care industry, particularly to the elderly who are home alone.