Safety Shield’s AI Technology continues to deliver a safer future for construction workforce
Safety Shield Global is continuing to break new ground through its innovative life-saving Artificial Intelligence technology after a summer which saw the Cheshire-based business earn Royal approval.
Jonathan Guest, along with members of the Safety Shield team, were honoured to welcome the Lord-Lieutenant of Cheshire, Lady Redmond MBE to the company HQ in Winsford, to carry out the formal presentation ceremony of the Kings Award for Innovation. The Lord-Lieutenant, along with her husband, Sir Phil Redmond CBE and the member of parliament for Mid-Cheshire, Andrew Cooper MP enjoyed two hours touring the facility, speaking to members of staff in all departments, topped off by a demonstration of the cutting edge AI Human Form Recognition technology.
Already saving lives on a daily basis, the Safety Shield detection system continues to deliver on a promise that CEO Jonathan made to himself following the death of a close friend while working on a UK construction site.
Vowing to make the industry a safer place for its on-site workforce, the Safety Shield product has been more than a decade in the making, from the early tag detection systems using Radio Frequency Identification, to the current human-form recognition system developed through technology originally utilised for collision avoidance in the automotive industry.
Today’s Safety Shield has been fitted to more than 10,000 plant and machinery across the UK and Ireland, with interest growing across the US, Canadian and Australian markets.
Its reliability has been confirmed through six ISO certifications and has been awarded an accuracy measure of 99.6% by independent testing bodies.
Acting as a third eye for the operator, visual and audible alerts are activated depending on whether the human form is within the amber (outer) zone or red (inner) zone, at which point a collision is imminent.
A cloud-based monitoring system also ensures that every triggered alert sends information to a data centre which keeps all records, video footage and incident logs available on an online portal.
The statistical impact is clear, with an average 65% reduction in red zone incursions around plant fitted with the AI collision avoidance system in 2022/23.
Founder, Jonathan Guest, comments: “Any death or life-changing workplace accident is one too many. These deaths are all avoidable and I believe AI technology, coupled with our system enhancements and upgrades, has the potential to completely eliminate all collisions.
“We will not stop developing and innovating until we have achieved that goal.”
With the Safety Shield workforce doubling in size with 16 new appointments over the last six months, the team has also moved into a new headquarters with the capacity to accommodate what has quickly become a global operation.
