Posted by scott.pendleton

How it works:

School or campus cameras that have audio input can be used as auxiliary ears in the environment. This can be in place of or supplemental to dedicated sound sensors. Using sound analysis, which can be on camera or centrally located, sound profiles for gunshots, breaking glass or other desired sounds can be registered. Using coordinated event information, PTZ cameras can then be automatically re-positioned to the area of the sound.

Once the cameras are viewing the location video analytics can take over, identify the gun, and then track the person holding it even after they discarded it. These tools can give school administrators and first responders invaluable information in the initial moments of an active shooter scenario.

Virtually every school these days has locked entryway. Often this is an external door or vestibule that prevents unauthorized persons from entering the school without going through the school administration office to be checked in. When schools were small the kindly receptionist knew every child and their parent/guardians and authorized persons that would come to school to get or visit the child. As schools grow and administration becomes more complex, the days of that full time receptionist is passing.

Good poeple/Bad people Recognition is the ability to use technology to recognize the people that should be at the school and flag specific people that are not.

How it works:

Using a standard door camera, software can monitor all persons approaching entrances to a school. When parent or authorized person approaches the door the people in the office are alerted. The software performs facial recognition and flashes a message telling them who it is, which child they are responsible for, and even show the schedule that says where that child is supposed to be.

Enrollment can be done when the child is registered the first time the parent/guardian visits the school using simple tools such as iPad. Additionally, enrollment can be done using photographs so that all authorized persons do not have to be present to get enrolled. The photographic enrollment is especially important with the bad people recognition. Its unfortunate in our society, but sometimes there are estranged parents or individuals that are specifically forbidden, by guardian or by court order, from visiting the child. With bad people recognition, for obvious reasons, an in person enrollment is not feasible. In this case a photograph or even a DMV picture can be used to enroll someone. When this person is recognized by the software approaching the school they would be highlighted is a specific way and a different type of alert can be triggered that lets school administrators know this person should not be there. Anyone else would simply be flagged as unknown.

Paliton has several partners with facial recognition platforms. Some are standalone products and others are meant to be integrated with larger multi-functional systems. In any case we have a solution that can fit your good people/bad people requirements.

Prior to COVID-19 the #1 issue the School Principals brought up when asked about non-instructional technology was combating vaping. Its was prevalent problem even in elementary schools prior to COVID-19 and will likely rocket back to the top of the list after students return to in-person education.

Vaping is a multi-faceted problem, requiring part discipline and part educational guidance. However before any intervention can occur one has to figure out who to target. The technological disadvantage is that vaping most often occurs where cameras can not go. This is where chemical sensors come into play. By using sensors to detect the chemical traces of smoking and vaping, school administrators can be alerted when and where incidents occur. However, simply responding on demand to an incident isn’t as easy as it sounds. What generally happens when a faculty member or resource officer rushes to investigate and or catch them in the act is that the student(s) both figuratively and literally flush the evidence. This obviously creates an entirely different problem. Additionally, students quickly learn that they are being monitored and try to destroy the sensors.

The solution is using software that correlates events through multiple sources that over time can determine who to target for intervention. Paliton has multiple options both for modular solutions and all-in-one packages.

How it works:

Cameras are strategically placed in hallways near the entrances to bathrooms and other places where cameras are expressly prohibited. Chemical sensors are placed inside the rooms. When a sensor is silently triggered, camera footage both leading up to and after the incident is copied into a incident record. Video analysis will catalog each person’s face, with or without Personally Identifiable Information. On subsequent alerts, the software will score re-occurrences of certain faces entering and exiting the room. This will eventually identify who the most likely perpetrators are and even predict a pattern of when they are most likely to do it. This allows administrtaor to have available when needed and to target the individual with educational guidance intervention. It is an approach that has proven more effective that simple discipline and far less expensive than trying to catch the student in the act.