In 2013, 26 school shootings were reported in the United States. That number rose to 82 a decade later. America has a problem with school shootings, we can all agree. Meanwhile, the causes and solutions to the problem are where things start to fall apart. This has become one of the most polarizing topics in a highly polarized country. Solutions range from significantly tougher gun control and stronger investments in mental health to locking doors and arming teachers.
The surge in cases has spawned a small swath of tech startups trying to address the problem, including ZeroEyes, which uses AI imagery seen by police, panic warning system Centegix and scanner maker Evolv Technology, but studies by institutions like Johns Hopkins University have cast doubt on their effectiveness.
Cover, a new startup from Archer and Figure AI founder Brett Adcock, thinks it’s cracked the code. The company’s approach isn’t fundamentally all that different from existing methods like metal detectors or scanners, in that it monitors school entrances. A pair of objects, shown above, are placed at the door and scan people as they pass through.
What sets the company apart, Cover said, is that it uses underlying technology licensed exclusively from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). In fact, the startup is headquartered in Pasadena, California, and employs several employees from the nearby JPL facility.
Adcock compares the underlying technology to the full-body scanners that complement metal detectors at many airports. “Our system is very similar to that, but 10 times more powerful and accurate,” he told TechCrunch. “So it basically gives you very long-range scanning. You can scan from 10 to 15 feet away, so you don’t have to wait in line for a few seconds.”
But the comparison with TSA scanners suggests there could be a major obstacle to the widespread adoption of this technology. The topic has been a minefield of backlash from privacy advocates because of their ability to effectively see under clothing. In 2019, the TSA announced it would mandate the introduction of full-body scanners to add an extra layer of privacy protection. These concerns are likely to be exacerbated by the fact that the technology will primarily scan minors in school settings.
Adcock explains that the system is overseen by AI, not humans, and looks for only a “limited” number of weapons, such as guns, knives and explosives. “And that’s all we look for,” he says. “We don’t take uncompressed files off the system. We don’t have a storage location and we don’t need one. We just use our on-board neural nets to look for weapons. [issue with] How do we protect people’s faces? Because we don’t record or keep records.”
Once a threat is identified, a cropped image of the object is provided to the administrator.
The system’s ultimate opt-in level and what alternatives it offers will be up to the schools and districts that choose to adopt the technology. The system will identify potential risks based on factors such as size, shape and material, which should help distinguish between a handgun and a water pistol, for example.
“You shouldn’t be bringing water guns into schools when you have this level of security risk,” Adcock said. “If someone was bringing a water gun, we’d really want to detect that. Now, I think we can actually detect the difference between a water gun and a gun.” [hand]”A gun is very different to metal and water, so I think imaging can be very helpful in identifying whether it’s a false positive or not.”
Like Figure AI, Cover was launched by Adcock, who has invested about $2 million in the startup to date.
