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Gunshot Detection Device Comes to UConn

The device integrates with the campus' existing security technology and notifies police immediately on their mobile devices when a gun goes off.

(TNS) — STORRS, Conn. — Thanks to an alumni donation, the University of Connecticut is the first public university in the country to employ cutting-edge technology that will detect gunshots and explosions and, possibly, save lives.

Sadly, such technology is necessary in this day and age where mass shootings — including those on college campuses — are becoming more and more common.

Robert Hotaling, who graduated from UConn in 2001 with a degree in electrical engineering, now serves as president and CEO of Verbi Inc., a New Haven-based security company.

Hotaling made the donation, valued at $175,000, which includes a unit installed in an important building on the Storrs campus that is not being publicly identified for security purposes.

The unit, he said, is similar in size to a smoke detector and does not record audio, but rather uses artificial intelligence to pick up only those sounds.

He also recently donated two servers and video cameras.

Essentially if a gun goes off or a bomb explodes, the UConn Police Department knows about it immediately.

While the Verbi system is being tried out on a pilot basis, there are long-term hopes the technology can be applied to many more — if not all — UConn buildings.

While Hotaling said this is the first public university in the country, possibly the world, to incorporate this new technology, he said it has been incorporated in an unidentified small private college.

"I live 20 minutes from UConn and am a father of four. I felt that we can integrate an entrepreneurial solution," he said. "We've been working on this for months and feel, definitely, that the timing shows that the technology is necessary due to the increase in incidents at institutions nationwide."

The 2002 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, which claimed the lives of 20 children and six staff members, prompted him to investigate a type of technology that would increase security while integrating with existing security systems made by a number of manufacturers.

This news comes only a week after 49 people were killed at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., marking the most deadly mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

However, Hotaling said the new technology is a proactive approach and the university does not have a history of shootings.

The new technology, which Hotaling donated, will detect gunshots and explosions within 250 yards, notify campus police, map a shooter's location and send a live video feed to officers' cell phones and computers in less than two seconds.

A UConn press release states officers can choose to receive notifications via text messages, iPad notifications or text- to-speech automated phone calls.

They can also use the new technology to remotely activate video cameras around campus to investigate a fire alarm, medical emergency or other incident.

The press release also indicated the system has the capability to quickly send alerts to students, faculty and UConn employees.

Hotaling said while the technology originates from the military, it was modified to be used in a college campus setting.

Hotaling said the new technology will not stop a shooting but will " minimize impact and increase survivability."

The effectiveness of the new technology can be tested through active shooter drills the university already conducts, he said.

"My hope is that the university will proceed with additional sensors on the same network," Hotaling said.

He said he is hopeful that, next year, the new technology can be integrated with door locks, allowing the police department to either "lock a threat out or lock a threat in," depending upon the incident that is occurring.

Hans Rhynhart, UConn's interim director of public safety and chief of police, wrote in the press release that "we're using it to be proactive. This is a great opportunity to test a brand new system that has the potential to be really useful to our community. The sooner the police can get there and stop the shooter, the sooner they can stop the violence."

©2016 The Chronicle (Willimantic, Conn.), distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.