A young inventor has created a facial recognition system for front doors to help protect vulnerable and elderly people.

The system uses facial recognition to open the front door of the homes of elderly, disabled and those living with dementia instead of needing a key for entry.

Freddie Howells is only thirteen but developed the technology himself.

A motion sensor triggers a camera on the door to take a picture of the visitor's face.

This is checked against a database of known faces, If the system recognises the face, the visitor will be prompted to scan an ID tag.

If the ID tag and face match, then it will open the door.

He was inspired to help because of his great aunt who has dementia.

I developed the system because my Great Aunt Pat who's 88 lives at home alone and has dementia. Freddie Howells

Freddie hopes his invention will help other elderly people by making them less vulnerable to intruders.

His invention has been nominated for an award and he will attend the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham this week.