From iPhone apps warning homeowners they have an intruder, to key-free locks, Israeli companies have shown they are at the forefront of security technology at the UK's largest security event.

Twelve Israeli companies joined 600 others at the annual IFSEC exhibition in Birmingham this week, to show off groundbreaking technology.

"Israeli companies are well known in the security industry because of our own security situation," Max Gadot, of Risco, said.

Risco, based in Rishon LeZion and with an office in Manchester, is introducing a new iPhone app, Home Guard, to the UK later this year.

Linked to the home alarm system, the app can activate or deactivate a user's system remotely from their iPhone or Android.

If the alarm is triggered, it sends an alert to the phone followed by three photos, allowing the user to assess whether it is an emergency or false alarm.

Last month intruder detection company, El-Far Electronic Systems, based in Magshimim, in central Israel, was given approval by the Home Office to sell its Viper technology, which detects if an intruder is interfering with a security fence through vibration sensors, to UK prisons.

According to Tzachi Wisenfeld, executive vice president of ASSA ABLOY, which owns Israeli lock company Mul-T-Lock, the UK is falling behind in residential security.

"The UK is very traditional," he said. "It is very slow to adapt and move into advanced technology. People still have locks from 50 years ago.

"I think companies haven't tried hard enough to penetrate the market here."

His company has just launched a key-free lock for homes, which means residents can use a fob or pin number to open the battery-powered lock. Next year, it will work with mobile phone providers so that a door wll open when the phone is pressed against it.

Another Israeli company, Opgal, has branched into commercial security after providing military technology for the last 30 years. Based in Karmiel, northern Israel, it has just developed a zoom function for its thermal imaging cameras used in airports around the world. "We took the knowledge we had from military equipment and put it into the security market," Tomer Gasbo, security sales manager, said.

Award-winning company, BriefCam, is currently piloting its video synopsis technology at 30 universities and police forces across the UK. Its software, developed in Jerusalem's Hebrew University, reduces hours of video footage to minutes.

On average, every hour of video can be reduced to one minute of footage.

BriefCam's Erez Meir said: "There is a common problem that organisations record hours and hours of footage but there is not enough time to watch it."