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5 Ways Video Analytics Can Help Manage Covid-19

by with No Comment Post-Pandemic TopicsSolutions

Since the pandemic began, wearing face masks and social distancing have been used as preventive guidelines for individuals, organizations, and governments to follow. Many governments have gone so far as to make those guidelines into mandates and laws.

Whether guidelines or laws, it’s still the responsibility of society to maintain these and make sure a second wave of the pandemic does not accelerate out of control. But how can organizations or governments monitor or even execute these rules with limited human resources and no smart methodologies on hand?

We recommend intelligent video analytics — AI technology interpreting IP video sources. Preventive measures like mask wearing and social distancing guidelines can be easily monitored as well as executed. Below are five examples of intelligent video analytics from Gorilla Technology and their use cases that can help you make a proactive difference in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic:

 

1. Facial Recognition

Employing no-touch access control reduces physical contact with devices and people, which can drastically reduce transmission of the virus.

 

2. Mask/No-Mask & Eyewear Facial Recognition

Mask guidelines and mandates are in effect to some degree all over the world and leveraging edge AI to assist in enforcing these regulations decreases required manpower and increases efficacy in areas where personal protective equipment is required.

 

3. Crowd Detection with Occupancy Analysis

As social distancing is part of the new normal, people counting and crowd detection can help keep transmission risks to a minimum.

 

4. Crowd Detection

Once offices reopen, management can ensure break rooms and other gathering spots remain safe and not overcrowded with edge AI zone capacity alerts.

 

5. Heatmap and People Counting

Good air quality in high foot traffic areas is important and heatmap & people counting analytics can empower HVAC systems to circulate air appropriately to keep infection risks low.

We firmly believe in and see the benefits of implementing intelligent video analytics that can adapt to many situations — it saves time, money, and makes it easier to quickly solve new and unforeseen challenges, like what we are experiencing now with Covid-19.

For more info about this topic, refer to our solutions on Post-Pandemic Area Management. Also, if you’d like a deeper dive on the technology or specific cases, our whitepapers offer more details.

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Post-Pandemic Situational Monitoring with Big Data

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The period of lockdowns around the world is coming to an end. It is inevitable that business and operations need to reopen for economic survival. However, the possibility of new waves of the virus after re-opening is an issue that requires close monitoring.

Balancing Economic Activities and Epidemic Control

The answer to this problem is actively sought out by various government agencies. From gradual re-openings within borders, to the conditional re-openings at borders (such as travel bubbles), these policies and measures are already starting to be implemented in many areas.    

The most important supporting measure after a lockdown – apart from wearing masks, social distancing, and frequent hand-washing – should be epidemic surveillance. This means monitoring those in home quarantines and self-isolation. For example, once a confirmed case is discovered, the history of who they came in contact with needs to be determined in the shortest time possible. Once those potentially infected people are discovered, monitoring them and possibly enforcing home quarantine and self-isolation is a high priority.  

When monitoring is not automated, the staffing required will be massive and it may not be possible to execute quickly. A failure like this could cause a large-scale community-based spread of the virus that cannot be traced, which would then lead to the city needing to return to lockdowns yet again.

Considering automated monitoring, it can be applied via the deployment and use of post-pandemic area management solutions like big data analysis. From monitoring home quarantines and whether the monitoring device of a quarantined person strays from its designated location, to understanding the previous movements of a newly diagnosed person – automated big data analysis can be applied to identify possible connections quickly, accurately, and efficiently.

The monitoring devices used for quarantine and self-isolation are IoT devices that can report back to the big data platform at set times. Once an irregular report from the IoT device is recorded, the big data platform can immediately issue an alarm to notify personnel.

Understanding Contact History with Big Data

To accurately understand the contact history of a newly diagnosed person, data from multiple sources is required. For example, the logs from a telecommunication company’s cell tower, check-in/out times from locations using ID verification, CCTV recordings, credit card spending history, etc. would all be utilized in contact tracing. These data can ultimately be analyzed to find possible contacts with location/time crossovers.

For integrating heterogeneous data from multiple sources, Gorilla’s big data analysis platform provides real-time event notifications and space–time analysis functionality, making it an optimal solution for contact tracing.

Contact us to learn more about post-pandemic area management solutions like our big data platform. If you’d like to read more in-depth on the topic, please check out the whitepaper we recently published here: https://www.gorilla-technology.com/Edge-AI/whitepapers

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Post-Pandemic Workplace Wellness & Intelligent Building Automation Systems

by with No Comment Post-Pandemic Topics

The Pandemic

The world was caught unprepared for Covid-19 and its profound consequences on public health and the economy. In just the first six months following its discovery, the highly contagious virus was able to infect over ten million people globally, and has been responsible for at least half of a million deaths around the world in as much time.

Since the outbreak, the pursuit of workplace wellness has dramatically accelerated. Workplace wellness encompasses the physical health and safety of its employees, also how they can successfully perform their jobs and how they interact with one another.

Workforce Vulnerabilities

Most jobs (office, engineering, construction, government, etc..) can be broken down into daily tasks that have at least some element of human interaction – this may act as a channel for the virus to spread. Jobs that involve these tasks not only expose employees to risk of infection, they can also increase the spread of the virus by acting as a distribution network for it.

The challenge is in reformatting these jobs to keep our workforce healthy and productive. Checking temperatures at entrances, maintaining social distancing during working hours, assisting health professionals with contact tracing – these are just a few examples of what offices will need to do in order to reopen safely.

Enhancing Building Automated Systems with Edge AI

Edge AI driven video analytics from Gorilla provide reliable solutions to slow the spread of the virus. Integrating and deploying facial recognition access control, attendance systems, and smart parking solutions with current building automation systems to automatically monitor compliance in many ways are now possible. To name a few:

  1. Performing screening for fevers and masks at entrances and other key zones.
  2. Using crowd detection in cafeterias and break rooms to ensure proper social distancing is followed.
  3. Assisting health authorities with link analysis & contact tracing when positive cases come to light.

Post-Pandemic Area Management solutions from Gorilla can also help maintain public safety and order – something that will prove to be a challenge as lockdown measures result in closed businesses and greater economic hardship for many people.

Gorilla’s offerings of behavior analytics, intrusion detection, loitering detection, direction violation detection, fighting detection — these can all help minimize the prospect of looting, vandalism, robberies. Gorilla is reaching out to assist law enforcement in preserving public order during this trying time.

While the health crisis is far from over and the full impact of the virus and global lockdown is still to be seen, we know we will get through this. We will return to our workplaces as they are re-tooled into safer and smarter environments – and Gorilla will help get us there.

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A Tense Encounter at the Grocery Store

by with No Comment Post-Pandemic Topics

Any parent will understand that your kids are at home with you all day and every day. Every chore and every errand you have to run, your child is with you – there are no schools and no childcare available. This includes errands like grocery runs.

Last Wednesday morning, I geared up to go to the grocery store with my child. Masks? Check. Sanitizing wipes? Check. Hand sanitizer? Check. Snacks for cranky kiddo? Check. We got to the store and I noticed there wasn’t a security guard standing outside to ensure everyone abided by the ‘no face mask, no entry’ rule. I figured it would be ok because the store looked pretty empty – I had strategically chosen the morning to conduct this task because this shop is usually slow before lunch.

We entered the store, I grabbed a shopping cart and wiped it down with an alcohol wipe before putting my child in it – then went about my shopping.

Once I completed our shopping, we got in the checkout line and stood on the strip of red tape six feet behind the shopper ahead of us to follow the store’s social distancing policy – there was another strip six feet behind me, and so on.

There were only two of the ten cashier lines open, which is normal for mornings. Yet as I looked at the impulse buys in front of the register, the line behind us grew. My strategic plan of going shopping in the morning to avoid a crowd was crumbling.

I turned from looking at gum and noticed that the man behind us wasn’t wearing a mask and was mumbling to himself. Visibly agitated, he was muttering profanities about the slightly longer wait and had moved to within whispering distance of me. Did he even notice the red tape?! I think all parents, everyone for that matter, can imagine the fear and panic snowballing in the pit of my stomach as I hovered closer and closer to my child – hoping to shield her from harm with my body. Enough was enough.

At that point, I took a breath from through my mask, turned, and firmly told the man behind us that we’re all in this together and he should kindly withdraw to the red strip of tape six feet behind us and offered him an extra mask I had packed. He momentarily balked at my comment, but then begrudgingly took the mask and moved back to the strip of red tape. We got home without further incident, but it got me thinking – was that whole episode really necessary?

Since I work for an edge AI and computer vision company, I know there are better ways to manage and control situations such as the one I experienced. Firstly, deploying mask detection at store entrances can avoid the issue of not having security personnel on duty. If the store wants to invest further, they can include crowd density detection throughout the store as well as at the checkout. Computer vision is quick to implement. It isn’t complicated and there is no breach in privacy. In any case, if it can help protect my child without me having to step in and confront an agitated stranger, I really don’t mind a little bit of surveillance. 

As an active member of the community, I do my civic duty whenever I can. I hope grocers and other retail shops will do the same by implementing extra measures to protect their shoppers.

To read more, click on what interests you below:

Post-Pandemic Area Management

Video Analytics

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