Apple Watch Ultra Attached to Drone Helps Detect Gunshots – PCMag

Norwegian software company Triangula(Opens in a new window) has come up with a novel way to detect the position of gunshots using the unlikely combination of a drone and an Apple Watch Ultra.

In a post on LinkedIn(Opens in a new window) (via AppleInsider(Opens in a new window)), Triangula’s chief commercial officer, Marius Marents, posted a photo of the Apple Watch Ultra attached to a drone using nothing more than a standard Apple Watch band. In the post Marents said, “We can use the Apple Watch as a sensor in our Gunshot Detection System. Today we mounted a Apple Watch Ultra on a drone. This is so cool.”

Triangula’s technology relies on the sensors in mobile phones to help detect and position gunshots made by small firearms with a little help from some AI. It’s a system that only takes a few minutes to deploy and requires three or more devices with the Triangula Scout app installed to work.

Clearly Triangula realized its system wasn’t limited to smartphones and could easily be extended to include smartwatches that have the necessary sensors. As the system relies on recognizing the audio signature of a gunshot, the required sensor is a microphone, of which the Apple Watch Ultra has an array of three.

In a post on Reddit(Opens in a new window), the question was raised as to how the Apple Watch could hear a gunshot when attached to a drone due to how much noise they produce in flight. In response, it was suggested the drone noise can be filtered out because it’s a consistent sound that can easily be detected. Marents confirmed to PCMag that an audio filter is used, but that “in most cases the drone is landed” during detection. He also pointed out a combination of devices can be used together, which includes tablets such as the iPad and a mix of Android and iOS devices.

Hands On With the Apple Watch Ultra