The YouTube channel, Smarter Every Day, and its creator, Destin, are no strangers here on TFB.  Destin is a firearms owner and has visited quite a few gun-related science experiments, as well as slowing things down for us with high-speed video.  His latest video dives into the hot topic of firearm detection, with a catch.

In the Smarter Every Day video below, Destin explores his friend Chad’s new firearm detection software.  Chad has trained his program to recognize firearms.  The catch is that he’s only trained it to recognize firearms while in people’s hands.  One of the specific goals of the recognition ability was avoiding setting off alarms for holstered, or concealed firearms.  Thus, the recognition and tracking of a gun in someone’s hand would raise an alarm since it would be presumed the person holding the gun intends to use it.  Destin explains that he and Chad wanted to preserve people’s privacy and the 4th Amendment by narrowing the software’s search to immediate threats only.

As seen in the video, getting the software set up to succeed took a lot of time and effort.  Not only did it take time uploading examples of lots of different guns from different angles, but a lot of time uploading non-gun related items that people normally hold in their hands.  The video doesn’t discuss any rifle or shotgun recognition, although I got the impression the project wasn’t completed at the time Destin filmed the video.  I imagine that when it comes to that stage, Chad will need to spend time uploading a lot of broom and mop photos, just as he had to do with cell phones compared to handguns.

Early on in the video, Destin mentioned that this firearm detection system could be plugged into existing surveillance camera systems, which seems like an economical advantage for those willing to utilize it.  You can view the Smarter Every Day channel HERE for more of Destin’s content.  What do you think about Destin and Chad’s firearm detection program?  Let us know in the comment section below.