Eyes wide open

Now that CES is behind us let’s step back from smart home security products for a minute and talk about AI-based surveillance platforms and what an impact they’re making.

By impact of course I mean that with AI everything being so en vogue it’s been particularly popular for surveillance where it’s being used to do everything from authenticated visitors and license plates to identifying dangerous patterns and harmful devices. That last one is especially notable since ZeroEyes and AEGIX Global have just nailed down a contract with the Utah state senate to deploy their AI-based gun detection solution to every k-12 public school in the state (charter schools included).

If you’re curious if that matters it’s time once again to note that, as of the start of the new year and the writing of this article, there have been no less than 16 incidents classified as mass shootings in this country, four of them on the first day no less! If you thought to yourself, “Well, at least there haven’t been any school shootings,” then I have the misfortune to inform you of the Perry High School shooting in Iowa that saw three dead, and at least 7 others injured.  I know this because three days ago the news that Perry High School principal Dan Marburger died of his wounds from the incident was released.

There just really isn’t more for me to say on the topic that I haven’t already, but I did want to give a shout out to people in our industry working on the problem like ZeroEyes. They may not single-handedly be solving the problem, but they’re helping to be part of the solution, and that matters.

I also had the great fortune to interview Rich Onofrio from Shooter Detection Systems (SDS) who discussed the company’s #TakeAction initiative which is providing resources for schools and small businesses to have that conversation about safety from gun violence. In that interview Onofrio said that he believes that this year we’ll be seeing more security service providers offering gunshot detection as a part of their standard package of security systems recommendations, and I can’t help but agree.

It's a conversation I hope a lot of schools will have sooner rather than later.