Oviedo High School testing artificial intelligence system that detects guns

SANFORD, Fla. - Seminole County Public Schools is testing a new artificial intelligence system.  The goal is to add an additional layer of security to keep students, teachers, and staff safe on school campuses.  

FOX 35 News got a firsthand look at ZEROEYES at Oviedo High School where it has been put tested over the last 90 days. 

"We’ve been very very pleased with the technology," said Seminole County Schools Public Safety Director, Captain Richard Francis. 

ZEROEYES works with security cameras the school has already been using.  Rob Huberty, one of ZEROEYES founders and COO, used to be a Navy Seal.  He explained how their technology works.

"At the most simple basic for if you walk in front of a camera with a gun exposed we’ll detect it and we’ll send out alerts. We use artificial intelligence and we use basically computers to process graphics cards in order to give first responders info before shots are fired," Huberty said. 

He said the goal is to be proactive instead of reactive. 

During the live demonstration, someone with a gun walked on campus and right past a camera.   

"Algorithm makes the determination it believes that is a gun, then we have in a human in our operation center say that is in fact a gun to verify it. Then they hit a button that’s dispatched and then you received it. In that whole entire time, that’s about three to five seconds," Huberty said. 

That alerts the school resource officer, the local police, and a soft alarm in the school that gets school staff attention. The alert also sending a picture of the suspect...with a big rectangle around the weapons so police know what they’re dealing with. It also pinpoints where on campus the suspect was detected with a weapon.

Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma watched today’s demonstration.  FOX 35 News asked him for his first impression. 

"Seeing this, seeing zero eyes seems to have remarkable potential of increasing and enhancing some of the security measures we already have in place," Sheriff Lemma said.  

Seminole County Schools will continue to test ZEROEYES at Oviedo High School and will add a few other campuses to test it out.  Captain Francis said if this pilot program continues to go as well as it has, he’d like to add it to every public school and charter school in the Seminole County School system. 

ZEROEYES tells FOX 35 News the cost starts at $50 per camera on the system per month.  But their COO says the cost per camera per month goes down as districts add more cameras.

Tune in to FOX 35 Orlando for the latest Central Florida news.