India bets on AI tech to curb coronavirus infections, amid privacy fears

Name: Indian hospital installs robot to help Covid-19 patients connect with family
Uploaded: 2020-11-11T00:00:27.000Z
Duration: 2 min 19 s
Description: Indian hospital installs robot to help Covid-19 patients connect with family

In India, dozens of data-driven solutions have emerged to track people’s movements, check temperatures and enforce social distancing, sparking privacy concerns

Among these are a thermal camera that can track a person even while masked, and a device that can tell where someone sleeps

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Reuters

Published: 8:00am, 11 Nov 2020Updated: 8:00am, 11 Nov 2020

From a tracker that can tell where someone sleeps at night, to a device detecting whether they have a mask on or not, India’s government is betting on hi-tech solutions to fight Covid-19, despite growing privacy concerns.

More than 8.5 million people in India have been infected by the virus, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s tracker, making it the worst-affected country after the United States.

Officials have called on local firms to develop technology powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“The world is getting back on its feet and a new sense of normal is coming back. Now is the time to put these solutions in place so people feel safe,” said Akshata Kari, co-founder of Pixuate, an AI-based video analytics firm in tech hub Bangalore.

02:19

Indian hospital installs robot to help Covid-19 patients connect with family

Pixuate was one of six companies selected in May by the government’s Technology Development Board (TDB) to develop “a low-cost solution to identify persons with abnormal body temperature in a crowd” and alert authorities.

Pixuate’s product, which uses thermal cameras, has features such as facial recognition, and the ability to track a person – even if they are wearing a mask – and predict their age, gender and race, the TDB said in a statement.