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GunDetect™ Ushers in New Era of Gun SafetyNanoWatt Design, a solution provider specializing in vision processing technology, today announced the launch of GunDetect™ - the world's first consumer security device that sends an alert via text message if a gun is visible to an optical-vision sensor. GunDetect may be used to warn the user about armed intruders in their home, church or business, while also protecting against the unauthorized use of the owner's gun in their home. An experienced team of engineers created GunDetect with a key design goal to help gun owners make their home safer by warning them if a child inadvertently gains access to a gun. According to a recent study by the Pew (News - Alert) Research Center, about a third of all Americans with children under 18 at home have a gun in their household, including 34% of families with children younger than 12. "The breakthrough with our technology is that it offers an additional layer of safety within homes where a gun is present, but it doesn't impact the gun owner's access to the gun in an emergency," said Scott Gardner, CEO of NanoWatt Design and GunDetect. "The early warning that GunDetect may be able to provide, if a child or other unauthorized person were to gain access to a gun, is our number one focus and motivation for designing this product." With gun safety being a paramount issue among safety advocates and the general public, GunDetect offers a timely solution that until now, has been a nearly impossible problem to solve for several key reasons. "Other firearm safety technologies have had serious drawbacks for gun owners who worry about the reliability, delay and expense of technology that changes the gun itself, such as fingerprint recognition, bracelets, trigger locks, etc.," continued Gardner. "GunDetect avoids these pitfalls that have slowed the adoption of new gun-safety technology by making a device that is affordable and designed to complement gun use rather than potentially limiting access. Our product isn't a replacement for these other technologies, but it can add an extra layer of safety." GunDetect's optical sensor needs to have a clear view of the area to be protected, and it can be set on a shelf or hung on the wall, requiring only a standard electrial wall outlet and a WiFi (News - Alert) connection. Once purchased, consumers can register their GunDetect product online and assign a phone number to the device, which will send an alert via text message when a gun is detected in its field of view. "We'll also offer lower-cost versions that use our cloud-computing software on the Internet, but our top-of-the-line GunDetect integrates a powerful vision-processing system that does all of the required computation locally and then wirelessly transmits just the results - the presence or absence of a gun - via the Internet to generate a text message," said Rajeev Kumar, VP of Marketing for GunDetect. "This means that you don't have to be concerned about video leaving your home - we built the system to be secure and private." GunDetect uses specialized vision-processing software that enhances a rapidly emerging technology called "Deep Learning," which is the same technology that is being developed for driverless cars. The basic algorithm has been around for years (sometimes described as neural-net processing), but due to its staggering computational complexity, only recently has the high-speed hardware needed to implement Deep Learning become affordable. Deep Learning software is "trained" by software analysis of many thousands of images that are labeled as to whether or not they contain the object that is being recognized (a gun). Once trained, the software can interpret new images to decide whether they contain the object of interest, but getting high accuracy requires some complicated image manipulation along with other vision-processing algorithms to help the deep-learning software avoid false results. The GunDetect software incorporates techniques from recent university research, in addition to some proprietary technology. Test GunDetect! Even before GunDetect hardware enters final production, you can try out the latest software, which is running on the GunDetect cloud server. Sign up at www.gundetect.com and submit your own image to test GunDetect's ability to identify a gun. To learn more about backing the GunDetect project and receiving a system for your home or business, please visit the company's Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gundetect/gundetect-alerts-you-when-it-sees-a-gun Pricing and Availability: Versions of GunDetect range in price from $399 to $800, with deliveries for early Kickstarter backers scheduled for Q1-2016 and retail production planned for late 2016. About GunDetect: GunDetect™ sees guns. It is the world's first home security device that alerts you with a text message if a gun is visible in the field of view. It is designed to complement gun security and is based on vision-processing technology that does not require any changes to the gun itself. GunDetect may be deployed to protect your own gun from unauthorized use or to alert you to the presence of a gun in the case of armed invasion of your home or business. For more information about GunDetect, please visit: www.gundetect.com. Twitter (News - Alert): @gundetect
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150715006073/en/ |
