Could This Robot Stop a Terrorist Attack?

I live in one of the most highly trafficked neighborhoods of New York City.

My home is one block from Penn Station, one of the busiest transit hubs in the country...

The Macy’s flagship store is directly across the street from me—that’s where they host the Thanksgiving Day parade each year…

And I’m literally next door to The Empire State Building. Here’s a picture I took from my roof deck this past July 4th:

I love New York City and I love my neighborhood, but given the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Pakistan and Belgium, I’ve become far more cautious lately when I walk out my front door.

If, God forbid, there were an attack on New York, my neighborhood would be a prime target. And unfortunately, I’m not sure the NYPD could prevent it.

But now, as I’ll explain in a moment, a new technology is offering a solution that could help protect us all...

The Job is Simply Too Big

To be clear, I mean no disrespect to the NYPD.

My grandfather was a Sergeant in Queens, and several of my close friends are currently on the force.

But patrolling a city the size of New York—and more specifically, highly trafficked areas like my neighborhood—is just too big a job for any squad:

For example, every minute, thousands of people are walking through Penn Station. Meanwhile, there might be just a handful of police every few hundred feet.

I imagine the situation is similar in places like the Brussels airport.

Keeping an eye on that many people in that large of an area is simply too big of a job for a limited number of human beings.

Which is one of the reasons we’re seeing increased activity around start-ups that focus on civil defense and security technology.

In fact, just last year, in order to help fund this new generation of defense companies, the Pentagon announced they’d be opening a Silicon Valley office.

And recently, we came across a company that’s helping to lead this trend.

A 300 Pound "Security Guard"

Meet The Knightscope:

The Knightscope is a 5-foot tall, 300-pound robot that can patrol any well-defined geographic area. Places like a shopping mall or a train station, for example.Here’s how it works:

Each robot is equipped with a number of sensors and 360-degree high-definition cameras. The data it captures—which includes everything from faces to license plate numbers to noises like breaking glass—is wirelessly uploaded to a remote security system.

That data is then processed by sophisticated crime pattern detection algorithms, and reviewed by human operators.

If a crime is detected—or predicted—the robot can communicate with the suspect and notify local law enforcement.

These robots are already being deployed in several shopping malls in the San Francisco Bay Area.

And one day, we imagine you might see dozens of them patrolling airports, train stations, and other high-traffic public spaces.

In conjunction with small groups of policemen and women, they’ll have the capacity to patrol and monitor vast areas—and in turn, they might prevent horrific crimes from taking place.

And Here’s the Best Part

Not only could this company help make public spaces more safe...

It could also deliver big returns to early investors.

You see, Knightscope is currently raising a new round of financing.

It’s already raised over $5 million from top-tier investors like NTT DOCOMO (the largest mobile phone network in Japan) and Flextronics (one of the largest supply chain solutions companies in the world).

And now it’s raising $10 million from professional investors and the general public.

You can learn more about this offering here »

To be clear, this offering is for accredited investors only. In other words, according to the SEC, you must have a net worth of at least $1 million or earn at least $200,000 per year in order to invest.

However, that regulation will soon be changing. As Matt told you yesterday, on May 16th (just a few weeks away), everyone will be able to invest in breakthrough private deals like this one—regardless of your income or net worth.

And as always, we’ll be here to guide you when these new laws go into effect.

Happy investing.

Please note: Crowdability has no relationship with Knightscope, or with any of the platforms or companies we write about. Crowdability is an independent provider of education, information and research on start-ups and alternative investments.