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Artificial intelligence
Tech

Hangzhou park security uses AI-powered smart glasses to detect people with fever

  • Roving security at Hongyuan Park can check the temperature of several hundred people within two minutes at a distance of up to 1 metre
  • Chinese AI start-up Rokid has also supplied its smart glasses to public security authorities in its home city of Hangzhou

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A roving security staff member at Hongyuan Park, part of the Xixi Wetland preserve in Hangzhou in eastern China, wears a pair of smart glasses from artificial intelligence start-up Rokid to check on the temperature of park visitors. Photo: Handout
Sarah Dai

In comics, television and film, there is almost no hiding from Superman because of his powerful X-ray vision. The famous exception is his inability to see through lead.

Nearly 82 years since this superhero first appeared in Action Comics #1 on April 1938, the line between science fiction and reality is blurring fast in China, as more advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology are being used to help stop the coronavirus from spreading.

Roving security staff at Hongyuan Park, part of the Xixi Wetland preserve in Hangzhou in eastern China, now have the power to quickly detect the body temperature of all park visitors from a distance of up to 1 metre, thanks to “non-contact thermal augmented reality” smart glasses supplied by AI start-up Rokid Corp.

The company said on Thursday that each smart glass user will be capable of checking the temperature of several hundred people within two minutes – a vast coverage and speed that would make even Superman proud – to eliminate queues at the park entrance.

It said the smart glasses are being deployed this week in a bid to “reduce the possibility of [large numbers of people] gathering” amid efforts to enforce social distancing, especially as more public facilities across the mainland are opened after a nearly two-month shutdown because of the coronavirus crisis.

Each smart glass user at Hongyuan Park can record the infrared image and temperature reading of a person up to a distance of 1 metre, according to artificial intelligence start-up Rokid, developer of the non-contact thermal augmented reality device. Photo: Handout
Each smart glass user at Hongyuan Park can record the infrared image and temperature reading of a person up to a distance of 1 metre, according to artificial intelligence start-up Rokid, developer of the non-contact thermal augmented reality device. Photo: Handout

The Covid-19 outbreak on the mainland has led to a surge in the use of AI applications to help contain the spread of the disease. Some of the initial applications range from robotic cleaners spraying disinfectant at segregated wards and apps that can track people’s travel history to AI voice assistants calling people to give advice on home quarantine.

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