Brian Arwari, University of Miami associate clinical professor, with his Lightguard device, designed to combat gun violence.
Arwari, who runs the university's Neuro-Cognitive Kinesiology lab, told Yahoo News that his inspiration came "from seeing the situations like the Pulse Nightclub [shooting] ... and even before that, the Bataclan [theater] in France,” referring to the 2016 shooting in Orlando in which 49 people were killed, and an attack in Paris in 2015 in which 90 people died.
“All you can think about is, ‘I need to get this out of my face.’ So, instinctually, you turn away, and you want to go in the other direction,” he said., also known as a stun grenade, often used by police, but said the Lightguard is safer, since flash-bangs can cause permanent hearing loss or severe burns. Lightguard also serves as an emergency trigger to alert police.
Law enforcement officers or someone authorized by a business or school are intended to activate and turn off the device.