Security cameras have become valuable tools to identify threats of violence. There’s a new development that adds AI that can detect guns in security video.
The new dimension of AI has the potential to prevent a mass casualty event.
“We needed to move away from the thinking that emergency mass notification systems were all about notification, ” said David Fraser, CEO of Omnilert.
Fraser demonstrated its new Gun Detect technology it claims to be an industry first using AI.
Utilizing existing camera networks in a large-scale setting, such as a school or airport or large business campus, algorithms can identify a gun or shotgun.
The system first flags the gun in orange as suspicious, then goes to red alert in seconds.
“They basically can make a high-resolution determination of whether this is a real threat or not,” said Fraser.
In the demonstration for ABC7 News, a suspect with a face mask walks into view of a security camera, briefly casing out the room and then pulling out a gun.
Artificial intelligence identifies it as a threat. “After that,” noted Fraser, “it’s a single click to be able to initiate a predefined set of actions.
“ A cell phone pop-up notifies a security officer.
Software then provides a still photo to get details of the gun and a description of the suspect.
Then a decision can be made whether to dispatch first responders or to dismiss it as a false alarm.
AI knows, for example, that a sprinkler head is not a gun.