Pa. high school installs first-ever AI security system that detects weapons, notifies police

A Pennsylvania high school has added an extra layer of security by installing an artificial intelligence system that can detect a gun and notify police in mere seconds.

The Archbishop Wood High School in Warminster became the first school in the world to add the Athena Security device to its existing system, KYW-TV reported.

The system, developed by Texas-based Athena, uses motion and image detecting technology.

Athena co-founders Chris Ciabarra and Lisa Falzone developed the technology in an effort to prevent school shootings.

“There have been a lot of advancements in artificial intelligence and so basically what we do is use object and motion detection to recognize when someone pulls out a gun and alert on that,” Falzone told KYW.

How does it work?

The camera can detect the image of a gun as well as dangerous movements including someone pulling out a gun, hands going up in the air, or someone being punched, according to the Athena website.

Once danger has been detected, the camera captures a video of the incident, along with its exact location, which is sent to police and school officials within three seconds.

“So not just recording crime but proactively preventing crime,” Falzone said.

What else?

The technology was installed at the school about a month ago.

“This is just another layer it’s more being proactive than reactive I hope we never have to use it,” Zimmaro said.

Athena is also working on developing software that uses radar to detect concealed weapons.