FOSTER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Deep North, a pioneer in Video Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Deep Learning, today announced an introductory program to help schools rapidly and cost-effectively enhance safety and security measures to help prevent school shootings and other safety issues facing students on a daily basis. Through the program, a select number of schools will have the opportunity to operate as a cohort to deploy and field-test this video AI platform in a new and novel way, leveraging Deep North’s advanced object and facial recognition technology to proactively detect and prevent a variety of threats to student safety. The program will lay the foundation for the Company’s planned expansion into the education sector, as the demand for sensible, cost-effective safety measures in schools continues to grow exponentially.
Using video footage from existing security cameras, the Deep North platform generates real-time, intelligent insights – equipping any facility with a powerful, self-learning sensor that monitors, detects and interprets behaviors and movements by people across physical settings, as well as identifies objects that may present a potential threat. Essentially, the system improves the ability of the educators to keep students safe. The AI platform doesn’t replace human judgement, rather, it enhances the staff’s ability to quickly assess what is truly happening and how to best respond. In times of danger, moments matter, and Deep North can massively reduce the amount of time it takes for a potentially dangerous situation to be identified and resolved. Equally important, Deep North maintains important privacy standards, and does not generate, retain, or share any Personal Identifiable Information (PII) of the students or faculty appearing in security video footage. Instead, Deep North assigns numeric hashtags based on anonymous physical identification characteristics – ensuring schools do not have to take on any risk factors that otherwise come with storing PII and protecting it from cybersecurity breaches.
“AI represents one of the few viable ways to make schools safe, and does it in a way that is more affordable than any other,” said U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas. “Using this technology we can tell before the first shot is fired that there is a problem, and that has to be the goal."
Originally created to help brick-and-mortar retailers better understand the customer journeys throughout their stores, Deep North’s platform benefits translate seamlessly for school safety purposes. Beyond the advantages the technology enables in the event of crises, Deep North can also yield insights that help schools constantly improve their facility’s layout and infrastructure, better manage the flow of student traffic and more. Schools can also quickly and easily expand their security coverage by installing affordable off-the-shelf security cameras (320p is sufficient, 720p recommended), which can be instantly added to the Deep North system. The intelligence captured from a real-world environment allows schools to fortify both preventative and reactive safety measures to greatly enhance overall security.
“Our technology was borne of the challenges faced by the retail sector, with the goal to empower businesses with a data-driven approach common online, but sourced from the physical world. It was both unexpected and eye-opening to see the value our video AI and deep learning expertise could also bring to securing schools,” said Michael Adair, Deep North President and CEO. “Utilizing our solution, schools are able to automate and amplify the concept of ‘see something, say something’ in a way human security simply can’t match. We look forward to expanding our efforts with this program and helping more schools across the country enhance security, mitigate safety risks and better protect their students and faculty for the long run.”
Deep North’s patent-pending technology utilizes a combination of cross-camera tracking, hot spots and object alerts to scan crowds in and around school grounds, monitor areas of special concern such as entrances, exits or gathering areas, and identify shapes correlating with weapons or other items of concern. The system can then be set to issue alert notifications when these objects are detected or left abandoned for certain periods of time.
“The ability for a school to improve its safety and security without taking on steep costs, or having to adopt stress-inducing measures such as metal detectors, is no small feat. We are proud to be leading the way in providing a behind-the-scenes, software-driven option that can truly make a difference in the near-term as well as the long-term,” added Adair.
Since beginning rollouts with schools in this initial cohort, Deep North is also working in collaboration with school districts in adding capabilities and alert systems to prevent student abductions, particularly those by parents or family members who have restricted custodial rights. Deep North is currently working with schools in Texas, Florida, Massachusetts, and California as part of its initial cohort. For those schools interested in participating in upcoming cohorts, please visit http://deepnorth.com/schools/. To learn more about the company’s AI-based video analytics platform and the features offered, as well as the industry sectors it serves, visit Deep North.
About Deep North
Deep North is
a pioneer in Video AI and Deep Learning, focused on providing insights
for the physical world that previously could only be captured online.
Its patent-pending platform utilizes advanced and highly accurate object
recognition to turn simple video feeds into powerful, actionable, and
predictable analytics about the customer journey such as demographics,
gestures, emotions, product interaction, traffic patterns, optimal
utilization, customer service and more. Deep North solutions are
designed to help retailers, shopping malls, grocers, and building
managers improve real-time decision-making to enhance profitability,
efficiency and safety. Based in Silicon Valley with offices in Sweden
and China, Deep North counts some of the world’s largest and most
innovative retailers among its clients. For more, visit www.deepnorth.com.
