Coronavirus AI measures temperature and checks facemask compliance

SenseTime claims 85 per cent accuracy in identifying employees in a workplace with masks.

The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has killed more than 2600 people and infected almost 80,000 others. Picture: AFP

Artificial intelligence has made it possible for cameras in China to recognise people even when they wear a facemask for coronavirus.

Chinese artificial intelligence technology start-up SenseTime this month announced new camera surveillance software that can more accurately assess the temperatures of people in public places, and to help enforce the use of face masks during the epidemic.

It says thermal imaging camera systems aided by AI can assess the temperature of people to +- 0.3C.

“The accuracy of human body temperature measurement can reach ± 0.3C, which meets the criteria for preliminary screening of suspected patients for epidemic prevention and control, which can greatly improve the efficiency of human body temperature screening,” SenseTime says in a blog, according to a machine translation from Chinese.

“After deploying this (artificial intelligence) module, the system measures the forehead temperature of pedestrians through a thermal imaging camera,” it says.

“It can quickly detect people whose body temperature exceeds 37.3C in the crowd, and generate sound-light/pop-up window reminders.

“Staff can further use medical thermometers. After the second measurement, check and confirm in the intelligent management system.”

Japanese business site qz.com operated by digital business news publication Quartz carried a report of SenseTime’s AI advances.

Among other things, cameras aided by the start-up’s AI can check that people are wearing face masks in public.

One of the most interesting developments is more accurate face recognition even when people wear masks. SenseTime claims 85 per cent accuracy in identifying employees in a workplace with masks, provided 50 per cent of the bridge of their nose is exposed.

“Currently in closed public places, wearing masks has become a must, which poses new challenges to face recognition access control and attendance systems in offices, offices and other areas,” it says.

“Using the entrance and exit pass module of Shangtang AI’s intelligent epidemic prevention solution, employees can be accurately identified without taking off masks, and attendance can be recorded.

“When a person wears a mask, the pass rate can reach 85 per cent when the 50 per cent nose bridge is exposed. At the same time, it can be set to identify the masks, regulating employees must wear masks to enter the office area.”

It says a “smart business-real-time temperature analysis solution” has been devised specifically for shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores and other scenarios. Customers can be reminded to wear a mask.

Its AI can also help doctors further diagnose coronavirus by generating automatic reports from the CT images of suspected patients’ lungs.