Backflips and Machine Vision Share One Critical Link
Personal tragedies and experiences can frequently be the catalyst for innovation. Such was the case with Chad Green, President and founder of Lantern, LLC, who was working for the Department of Defense in 2013 when the tragic Newtown school shooting occurred. Chad set out to develop a gun detection algorithm with the goal of creating technology to detect and prevent such incidents. Fast forward to today, and that technology saves lives. His work with Iowa State University on a system to protect roadside workers from traffic incursions highlights the importance of innovation in improving the world. Innovation often requires a lot of trial and error, and sometimes failing is the only way to succeed.
Neural Networks and Handgun Detection
In 2013, during the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting tragedy, Chad had a direct connection with the incident as his cousin's daughter was among those who lost her life. At that time, Chad was working for the Department of Defense and developing algorithms to detect rocket-propelled grenades in order to make sure they didn't hit armored vehicles.
Chad started thinking: If we can come up with algorithms that can detect these things so fast that we can be proactive and actively protect our military from these situations, how can we help stop these things that are happening right here to our kids in elementary schools?
Chad came up with the idea of detecting handguns in 2013, but he didn't get a chance to implement it until he started Lantern in 2017.
Chad and his team eventually made a YouTube video demonstrating the technology, and it's received over 2 million views. All those views stirred up the idea that maybe there's something proactive that can be done to protect our children. Eventually, Omnilert acquired the intellectual property for the gun detector (because they saw the video) and hired Chad as the director of AI.
Chad’s been working with Omnilert for over three years, and the product is out in the field. They have detected real events, and saved lives.
Improving Highway Worker Safety
New innovations and technologies have led to a lot of safety improvements on the roads, like safer cars, better ways to manage traffic, and better roads and bridges. Despite all those advancements, passenger vehicles are by far the most dangerous transportation option. As an example, the passenger vehicle death rate is 1,623 times higher than that of scheduled airlines.
New technologies make roads and vehicles safer in the field of highway safety. Airbags, seatbelts, and stability control are all safety features that came about because of innovative ideas. In the same way, new ways to manage traffic in construction zones can help cut down on the number of accidents on our roads.
Chad Green has spent the past three years working with Iowa State University on a system to protect roadside workers from traffic incursions. With 3,000 pedestrian deaths per year, it’s clear that innovation is needed. These roadside workers need more than a hardhat, an orange vest, and a traffic cone to protect them from a distracted driver moving at 80 mph.
Innovation, Failure and the Lessons We Learn
So much of innovation involves trying, failing, trying again, and repeating until you crack the code. Innovation, by design, is new and has never been done before, so we should expect failures along the way.
And we should embrace those failures. On a recent afternoon, Chad worked with his son to help him learn to do a backflip. His son had been trying for more than a year to finish just one, but he had failed every time. But on this particular evening, Chad and his son took a different approach. Chad encouraged his son to remove everything from his head—everything he thought he knew about doing backflips and just go for it.
His son cleared his head, took a deep breath, and went for it. And to his amazement, he did it. The trick was not overthinking it. Relax, take a deep breath, and push forward. And that’s how it works with innovation. Clear your brain of what exists and try something new. You might create the next handgun detection software or save the lives of highway workers across the country.
Innovation does not exist without failure and trying again.
Interested in the entire episode with Chad Green? Listen as host Callye Keen interviews him on episode 001 of The Startup Defense podcast. Available on all podcast platforms.
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About Chad Green
As President and Founder of Lantern, LLC, Chad Green has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to lifesaving technology.
Chad founded Lantern in December of 2017. Lantern develops lifesaving and life-supporting technologies spanning medical devices, industrial safety, and advanced AI analytics. As President, Chad has grown Lantern from a basement startup to a successful R&D firm with several new patents and products being developed each year, both internally funded as well as on contract.
Prior to founding Lantern, Chad served as Vice President of Engineering for a defense technology company in Northern Virginia. He developed extremely high-speed optical sensors and electronics for Active Protection Systems (APS) to save soldier lives on the battlefield. He also patented, developed, and deployed an industrial safety system for detecting life-threatening hazards in highway or construction work zones. Chad also worked for Northrop Grumman on mission computers and navigation systems using advanced laser and micro-mechanical inertial systems. Chad has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science in Physics from the University of Utah.
