“Artificial intelligence” is one of those terms you hear about all the time now. These days it seems it can write a paper, flavor your Coca-Cola and do so many things humans used to do on their own. Can it also detect a gunman before a gunshot is even fired?
A Prince George’s County, Maryland, company is betting that it can.
Wave Welcome occupies a small office in the National Harbor area, and is led by Vennard Wright, a former Chief Information Officer in Prince George’s County and for WSSC Water, among lots of other companies.
He grew up in the Hillcrest Heights area and lives in Clinton now, and was inspired to come up with the technology back in the spring when a group of teenage boys rushed on to a school bus and tried to shoot another student.
“We’ve developed a platform called PerVista, which leverages AI to analyze security camera’s video streams, and the goal is to detect firearms,” Wright said.
“So a good example of that would be, if someone’s walking up to a school with an AR-15, we can see in real-time by analyzing frame by frame, whether or not there’s a firearm detected,” he added. “Once a firearm is detected, we notify public safety in real-time. And the goal is really to cut down on dispatch time, and to also make sure we’re identifying the person who could be the perpetrator.”
Wright said the technology is 100% accurate when it comes to detecting long guns now.
“We did start with that use case because a lot of school shootings do occur with AR-15s and long guns,” he said. “So that was an easier use case to go after. But we are also working on making sure there’s a match to smaller guns, like 9 mm as well. We are training the algorithm to be able to detect shorter guns as well.”
The cameras can be set up inside and outside. Drones can also be used to further track a suspect carrying a weapon. Alerts and video are then sent immediately to police, and they can also be sent to other people who might need to know, like security guards or teachers and principals if the technology is deployed in a school.
Even homes and businesses could use the cameras to monitor for the same kinds of threats. Or, to hearken back to the event that inspired this idea, a school bus.
“The way I understood that incident is they walked up to the bus with the gun out. So at that point, the way we’re looking at that scenario is immediately we call the police, we let the police know, ‘Hey, the bus is at this location, there are three people, here’s what they look like,’” Wright said.
“You cut down the amount of time that it takes in order to get the perpetrators,” he added. “We’re also looking to make sure that people are not on the run for a long time as well, which tends to happen … they’re looking for days or weeks for the shooter. Immediately, the police are able to respond and get the people.”
Wright said the technology is ready to roll out now. He also hopes that even if the platform can’t stop every single shooting, the immediate detection and dispatch to police could end up reducing the impact, and eventually lower the number of shootings that occur.
And as a Maryland native, he’s hoping to utilize this in area schools.
“It’s unfortunate that a solution like this is needed,” he admitted. “I’m also optimistic that by applying technology in the right way, we can start to serve as a deterrent. So we’re looking forward to being a big part of the solution. And hopefully by doing that, we will also be able to scale and make some incredible things happen here in Prince George’s County.”
