Unlike the thermometers, which work one person at a time and at close range, Athena Security's security camera detection system may be far better for scanning larger numbers of people in places like airports, grocery stores, hospitals, and voting locations. The company's thermal cameras are already in use at a coworking space in Austin, and will be deployed in some "large Fortune 500 companies" and some airports in the coming weeks, but Athena says it can't divulge the names of those customers yet. The cameras can detect the heat of 12 different places on the body with an accuracy of within a ½ degree, says Athena CEO Lisa Falzone. The company's software, which works with high-grade, off-the-shelf security cameras, uses an AI model to zoom in on a subject's inner eye, which is most reflective of the body's actual temperature, she said. The system uses AI to monitor numerous cameras at once, and automatically sends an alert to security personnel if it detects someone with a fever.

The coronavirus pandemic is having a peculiarly American side effect: Gun sales are surging. The stocks of publicly traded guns and ammo companies American Outdoor Brands Corp., Vista Corp., and Sturm Ruger & Co. are up. Sales leaped by more than 19% in January and 17% in February, compared with the same months in 2019, according to Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting. Gun buyers in the United States bought an estimated 1.24 million guns in, January up from 1.04 million the year before, and 1.36 million in February, up from 1.26 million the year before, according to Small Arms Analytics, which bases estimates on background check data. Those millions of new guns are in addition to the approximately 400 million guns American already own.

A security company has shifted its detection strategy from spotting guns to identifying people with a temperature. Launched in 2018, Athena Security's first product uses thermal imaging and computer vision to detect guns concealed under clothing. Now that the coronavirus is an even bigger public health threat than gun violence, the company has a new product: Fever Detection for COVID-19. Lisa Falzone, co-founder and CEO of Athena Security, said the platform combines infrared cameras and an algorithm that analyzes body temperature to detect people who have a temperature higher than 100 degrees. "So when someone comes into a business or an airport, you want to detect fevers to protect employees and customers," she said.

It is no new knowledge that start-ups in Artificial Intelligence are male bastions. At a time when gender equality is increasingly becoming the buzzword, gradually more women are creatively leveraging AI and Machine Learning in their businesses. Here are some promising women entrepreneurs and leaders who either offer AI-powered solutions or deploy machine learning in their firms in an innovative fashion. The company manufactures chips for Artificial Intelligence Solutions and is worth over $700. It recently drew crucial funds from Chinese and South Korean firms.

This week Athena Security announces the successful launch and implementation of the world's first artificial intelligence security camera system capable of instantly and accurately recognizing an active shooter before they shoot, alerting law enforcement and verbally alerting the assailant that Police are en route. Historically, security cameras are only as useful as the people actively monitoring them. Without real time oversight, unattended security camera feeds only help to piece together crimes after the fact. Past AI and computer vision technologies provided far too many false positives and therefore could not be deployed because they would erroneously alert law enforcement every couple of minutes rendering them useless. Athena Security's AI-powered system provides authorities with real time video footage helping speed police and medical aid to any type of crime scene decreasing fatalities with faster response times.