When people get angry, they usually get loud … and then there’s that certain aggressive tone in their voice. Louroe Electronics, a Van Nuys maker of audio surveillance equipment, has developed a device it claims can detect such tones before a situation might get out of hand. “If anybody is going to act out, you want to stop it before it gets worse,” Chief Executive Richard Brent said. Louroe – whose customers include stores, detention facilities and police departments – teamed up with Sound Intelligence, a Dutch company Brent ran into at a trade show. The company, based outside Amsterdam, is providing the software to analyze the human voice in real time, while Louroe has invested $500,000 in the device hardware. The software is being sold for $550 and is compatible with Louroe’s microphones, which start as low as $170. The Dutch company has sold the software in Europe and Asia for 15 years, but the Louroe partnership, which launched in March, gives it access to the U.S. market. The advantage of the device is that it does not require a person to listen in round-the-clock. Instead, when the software picks up angry tones in the human voice, it issues an alert. Louroe hasn’t sold any units yet, but is conducting a case study at a charter school in Chicago that seeks to prevent bullying, said Brent. He foresees that prisons, jails, schools and hospitals would have use for the device. Still, widespread adoption in the U.S. will take a while, he conceded, since any type of surveillance butts up against privacy rights. However, Brent stresses that the system does not require human involvement unless there’s a looming behavior problem. “No one is going to listen until there is a trigger.” – Mark R. Madler