San Antonio Company Developing AI-Powered Gunshot Detection

Wytec International Inc., a builder of 5G wireless networks, is working on artificial intelligence software to deploy on networks of sensors to pinpoint the location of gunshots or other campus problems and immediately notify school district officials.

Founder and CEO William “Bill” Gray launched the company in 2011 to provide in-building cellular networks to schools. But that goal changed after the May 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde.

“Now there’s a big focus on gunshot detection on campuses,” he said. “So we now are more and more focused towards that.”

Since then, the firm has added five provisional patents for its AI software and methods. It expects to roll out a pilot program to test the system at some Texas schools sometime in the next year. Judson, North East and Southside ISDs in San Antonio are among the 46 Texas school districts that have expressed interest in participating, according to Wytec.

The company also has submitted a proposal with the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTOG), which is seeking vendors to provide “advanced gunshot detection solutions” for 1,207 school districts. Gray said that deal could be worth as much as $2.4 billion.

“The smallest contracts in this thing are going to be $50 million to $100 million and up,” he said. He’ll find out in late December whether Wytec made the cut.

Robert Sanchez, Wytec’s chief technology officer, came to the company after years in the defense industry, where he designed software.

Wytec’s gunshot detection system is “an adaptation of the technology I helped to develop to defeat IEDs,” Sanchez said. He sees the technology as a critical component of making schools safer.

Rather than manufacturing its own sensors and hardware, the company plans to integrate its AI software with other vendors’ equipment. Wytec’s software is compatible with various types of cameras and sensors that monitor motion, temperature, light, sound and pressure.

Sanchez said the system communicates via a private, secured wireless network.

Its centerpiece is Wytec’s LPN-16, a patented, small cellular base station that quickly processes the data coming from the sensors and cameras and provides information about unfolding events to school and security staff via a mobile app.

A company presentation showed the mobile app interface, which displays the event’s location and provides real-time video and communication.

In addition to gunshots, the sensors can detect smoke, fire, drugs and even chemical and biological agents.

One difference between Wytec’s system and others on the market is that it does not immediately call 911. Others, he said, immediately dial 911.

“If you’re very familiar with some of our competitive technologies, they get too many false positives,” Sanchez said.

By putting teachers or administrators in the loop, Wytec says its system can help limit unwarranted lockdowns or first responder callouts.

The company says it’s performed 500,000 lab tests of its software, logging “better than 90 percent accuracy” in identifying gunshots.

The system also will be able to pick up preprogrammed key words that could be used to trigger an alert.

That means that “teachers aren’t the only one with the ability to trigger things. Students can too,” Sanchez said. “If a student sees an incident, they call out, for example, ‘Code Red,’ you'll be able to detect that on our system.”

Wytec already has two patents for some of its communications technology. They cover the company’s designs for local area networks with high data transfer speeds across multiple channels.

In September, it filed applications for five more patents covering various aspects of its detection system.

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