US-based company creates AI to detect potential gun violence, spot active shooters

A United States-based company called Omnilter has created software which uses artificial intelligence to monitor security cameras to spot an active shooter for potential gun violence before the trigger is pulled. The military-inspired AI technology reportedly works on real-time target recognition and threat classification.

In 2021, the US witnessed at least 61 active shooter incidents, said the FBI, which was the highest in the last two decades. Earlier this year at least two teachers and 19 children were killed when a shooter opened fire in a school in Uvalde, Texas, making the incident one of the deadliest school shootings that the country has seen in the last 10 years.

According to the company’s CEO, Dave Fraser, the AI-monitored security cameras can help detect a potential gun violence threat which would give people some time to prepare and take action by locking the doors and contacting the police with “rich information”, he said in an interview with Reuters.

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He noted how in a number of active shooter situations the assailants are visible on security cameras for seconds or even minutes. Fraser also gave the example of the Parkland high school shooting, where 17 people were killed in 2018 and said that the shooter was seen preparing for the attack near one of the stairwells.

According to the US bureau of labour statistics, there are more than 70 million security cameras across the country. However, less than one per cent are actively monitored, said Fraser, therefore, the software does the monitoring 24 hours, seven days a week and is always on alert. According to the company’s website, the software uses a “multi-dimensional process” to assess, detect, and analyse an active shooter in “fractions of a second”.

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The AI detects “handguns and rifles by essentially taking the place of a human being. By watching the video feeds,” said the Omnilert CEO to NBC’s News4. He added that subsequently, the information is passed on to an assigned operator who confirms the threat and initiates a safety plan.

Notably, he also claims that the AI can identify the difference between a potential shooter and an officer who is walking in with a weapon and said that the technology is not simply recognising guns but, “it actually needs to identify that there's a threat,” said the media report. Once the threat is detected the system sends images of the shooter as well as their exact location.

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However, the President of National School Safety and Security Services, Kenneth Trump, told Reuters that while technology could be useful their first and best line of defence in active shooter situations should be well-trained teachers and students.

He added that there is a skewed focus on “target hardening” and people investing more in technology as opposed to staff training, prevention, and recognising the warning signs, and unless that happens problems will continue.

(With inputs from agencies)

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