Security Services Northwest, Inc., owner Joe D’Amico has a patent pending with the U.S. Patent Office for a mobile phone case intended to detect gun shots and automatically issue emergency alerts.
The product is intended to link with Shepherd Shield, the personal security app that D’Amico debuted in 2017. Shepherd Shield’s real-time alerts are already issued when a subscriber comes in close proximity of a threat area (based on four threat levels, red being highest), as determined by information obtained from a variety of sources including app users.
D’Amico’s latest innovation is a phone case with microphones that would be activated by the sound of nearby gun shots, which have a different frequency than voices, for example. Should gunshots be detected, the phone would automatically alert the Shepherd Shield command center and send an Active Shooter alert to all subscribers in the vicinity also connected to the app. It would also automatically alert law enforcement.
“In an active shooter situation, a key response factor is how to alert people as quickly as possible, such as those in an adjacent room or building,” D’Amico said. “People often don’t realize the pop-pop they are hearing is from gunfire, and they can be slow to react. This invention would speed up the response process by urgently letting people know that yes, gun shots were fired nearby. It would also integrate Shepherd Shield’s map function to help people secure escape routes.”
The microphones would only be activated by the frequency produced by gun shots, not by simple voice, according to D’Amico’s patent application. The microphone capability requires further testing, D’Amico said.
The proposed phone case would have a light system that would activate based on the appropriate threat level, red being the highest in the existing Shepherd Shield model. The color alert would also be helpful if the phone user has their device on silent mode, D’Amico said.
As designed, the phone case would have two self-contained charging options: solar power and a small battery compartment.
The product would also have a G-force indicator so if the phone is dropped, it would automatically send an impact alert and would also automatically switch the phone to photo mode, intended to collect potential “witness” data from an emergency incident.
At this point, D’Amico has a patent pending and is seeking venture capital investors.
“There is nothing like this on the market today,” D’Amico said.
“My company has been welcomed in Clallam County since we relocated here in 2017 and my goal is to be able to expand Shepherd Shield to provide more family-wage jobs that the Olympic Peninsula needs.”