In 2013 it was 26 reported school shootings in the US Ten years later the number had increased to 82. America has a problem with school shootings and we are able to agree on that. On the other hand, the cause and solution of a problem is when all the things starts to crumble. It has turn out to be one of the most polarizing topics in a highly polarized country. Solutions include much stricter gun enforcement and more robust mental health investments, in addition to locking doors and arming teachers.
The dramatic increase in cases has spawned a cottage industry of tech startups hoping to solve the problem. There are ZeroEyes, which uses AI imaging monitored by law enforcement, the Centegix panic warning system and scanner manufacturer Evolv Technology, among others. Research conducted by research institutes like Johns Hopkins nevertheless, they query their effectiveness.
Cover, the new startup from Archer and Figura AI founder Brett Adcock, believes it has cracked the code. At its core, the company’s approach is not entirely different from existing methods resembling metal detectors and scanners, in the sense that it monitors school entry. The pair of objects seen above are mounted on doors and scan individuals who go through them.
Cover says what sets it apart is the technology used, which has been exclusively licensed to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). In fact, the startup is headquartered in Pasadena, California, and has been joined by several employees from a nearby JPL facility.
Adcock compares the underlying technology to full-body scanners that complement metal detectors at many airports. “Our system is very similar to this one, but about 10 times more powerful and accurate,” he told TechCrunch. “We can basically scan very long distances. We can scan someone from 10 to 5 meters away instead of having them sit here in line for a few seconds.”
However, the comparison with TSA scanners highlights what may prove to be a major obstacle to wide-scale adoption of this technology. The topic has turn out to be a minefield of opposition from privacy advocates due to their ability to effectively see under clothing. In 2019, the TSA announced that it will require full-body scanners add a layer of privacy protection. These concerns will likely be exacerbated by the indisputable fact that the technology will largely scan minors in school settings.
Adcock explains that the system will probably be monitored by artificial intelligence relatively than humans, only looking for a “finite” variety of weapons, including guns, knives and explosives. “That’s all we’ll be looking for,” he said. “We will not share uncompressed files from the system. We won’t have anywhere to store them, we won’t need them. We use the onboard neural network to look for weapons. It will not [issue with] how do we protect people’s faces because we won’t even record or store them.”
Once the threat is identified, the cropped image of the facility will probably be made available to the administration.
The extent to which the system is ultimately accepted and what alternatives are introduced is up to the schools and districts that select to implement the technology. The system will discover potential risks based on aspects resembling size, shape and material. The latter should help distinguish a handgun from a water gun, for example.
“People should not bring a spray gun to school during this level of safety emergency,” Adcock said. “I would say if people were using a water gun, we would really want to detect it. I think we will actually be able to detect the difference between a water gun and a spray gun [hand]gun because metal and water are very different things. I think the image will be very helpful in determining whether this is a false positive.”
As with Figure AI, Cover is being launched by Adcock, who has so far put about $2 million into the young startup.