June 28, 2022 (Berkeley, Calif.) - Kogniz™, innovator of the next-generation AI-based computer vision platform, today announces a ready-to-deploy gun detection module as part of the latest version of its technology that predicts, detects, and resolves key safety and operational problems. The company is also announcing a $10 million investment led by Ulu Ventures and with participation by super{set} Venture Studio and its CEO and Co-Founder Tom Chavez, The Indy Fund, K20 Fund, H. Barton Asset Management, and others. The investment will help bring the company’s technology product suite for gun detection, safety, and anomaly detection to commercial, industrial, school, and governmental organizations.
Prevent and Quickly Respond to Active Shooter Events with Ready-to-Deploy Gun Detection
Today active shootings present a serious challenge requiring multiple layers of safety and security measures. In fact, FBI data reveals that active shooter incidents have increased 33% between 2019-2020 and 52.5% between 2020 and 2021. The United States has suffered at least four mass shootings every week so far in 2022. Organizations across the board—retail, industrial, schools, religious, medical, governmental, among others—can benefit from AI-based solutions to help prepare and prevent mass shootings in their environments.
Kogniz built Kogniz Gun Detection™ to help organizations to prepare for, proactively detect, and respond to an active shooter event. Kogniz Gun Detection was designed for quick deployment with the flexibility to adapt to each organization’s specific needs.
Kogniz Gun Detection uses computer vision and AI to identify firearms in real time using a client’s existing camera infrastructure, offering:
- No False Alarms using multi-pass AI and backed by a trained team of human verifiers
- Real-Time Alerts over phone, SMS, Slack, and email
- Prebuilt Automated Workflows to automate actions defined in the emergency response plan
- Dynamic Reports to easily access real-time, critical information
- Two-Way Communications to provide information to those in need of help and stakeholders like police and other first responders
- Emergency Response Plans to document and prepare for actions to be taken during the emergency response
- Visual Simulations to simulate and prepare for active shooter scenarios and validate emergency response plans
“Kogniz Gun Detection uses client’s own cameras already onsite to detect and immediately respond in the horrible event of an active shooter or mass shooting situation,” shared Daniel Putterman, CEO of Kogniz. “By enabling a ready-to-deploy gun detection solution, we’re making it dramatically easier for companies, governmental agencies, schools, and hospitals to prepare for and then help reduce the harm done by an active shooter event.”
Kogniz Gun Detection seamlessly integrates with the Kogniz platform to address other safety and security situations. These pre-built detectors include detecting unusual behaviors like people running in halls, people entering through exits or jumping fences, and other situations that can be early indicators of incidents before they escalate.
Next-Generation, AI-Driven Kogniz Computer Vision Predicts and Prevents Safety Incidents
The new Kogniz Computer Vision Hub™ makes it remarkably easy to see, analyze, and make sense of anything that humans see, but with dramatically higher accuracy. Kogniz leverages clients’ existing video camera infrastructure, accurately detecting dangerous situations and unusual activity and predicting potential loss and equipment failure 24x7. This minimizes the risk of accidents, saves time, and improves productivity through earlier, always-on, and consistently-applied detection and monitoring.
Companies are using Kogniz to solve key challenges in industrial, commercial, retail, school, governmental, and hospital settings, including but not limited to:
- Employee safety
- Defect detection
- Perimeter intrusion detection
- Automated emergency evacuation management
- Building and vehicle lot occupancy and access
“Kogniz is tackling significant, long-standing gaps in safety, security, and operations and is truly helping organizations to better prepare before incidents happen,” said Clint Korver, co-founder and managing director of Ulu Ventures. “We’re thrilled to help the company bring innovative products using its next-level computer vision technology to clients looking to solve safety challenges in ways not previously possible.”
