Smartphones are powerful devices that people can do a lot things with apps and add-ons. Apart from the usual stuff of making calls, taking messages, browsing the internet, finding dates, taking photos and videos, connecting via social media, and doing online shopping, one can control house heating, security cameras, and even use it as a thermal camera.

Now, there is another add-on that can make the smartphone turn into an indispensable security device: as a scanner for detecting weapons and explosives.

A Los Angeles-based startup Royal Holdings Technologies Corporation, announced the SWORD Smartphone Case, the world’s first mobile 3D-imaging device. Made for the iPhone 8 Plus and the Google Pixel 2 XL smartphones, it can scan for weapons and explosives from a distance up to 40 feet using the app that comes with it by simply pointing the smartphone at a person of interest.

According to the company the SWORD can do much more such as includes facial recognition, real-time actionable intelligence alerts, and location tracking. With the app that is used with the SWORD case, it uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to cross check and verify weapons by accessing a cloud-based database. SWORD operates globally and features real time location sharing and generates real time alerts in the event of a mass shooting, terror threat, or terror attack.

Barry Oberholzer, CEO and co-founder of Royal Holdings  said in a press release that, “The advent of SWORD marks a paradigm shift in the safety and security sector. One portable and smart device effectively addresses the four main challenges that have been plaguing the industry in this age of mass shootings and bomb threats: portability of scanning devices; non-invasively determining if someone is concealing weapons or explosives, and if so, what type; and immediate and accurate recognition and verification of a person of interest.”

It will work with the iPhone 8 Plus and Google Pixel 2 XL because of their size and the camera position of the Samsung S9 Plus makes it difficult to make it a version for it.

Now, before you whip out your wallets, thinking that it is a device you might want to carry with your smartphone at all times, the costs might make you think twice, or thrice. It costs US$1,250 with a pre-order price of US$950 with a monthly subscription US$30 and institutional clients are the target customers for this product. There are already interests from security companies and casino as well as one large school which may need such device due to schools being magnets for mass shootings in the U.S.

If it is cheaper and it is more about weapons detection, then some us might want to have one of these cases to make our minds at ease knowing if a strange who is approaching us  is carrying a weapon or not, or make us more paranoid.