The problem our project solves
Recent pandemic outbreak has made clear that we all need to rethink the ways humans interact in public spaces, factories and offices. Moreover, we need to revamp, as soon as possible, the manufacturing capabilities of all the countries “frozen” by the Coronavirus outbreak. For this reason, it is necessary to redesign the working spaces in a sustainable, safe and socially acceptable way to preserve workers wellbeing, privacy and minimize their risk of being exposed to the virus (e.g. with social distancing).
This project is creating an AI architecture to monitor and provide an easy-to-understand measure of the workplace wellness during and after this global emergency. Our solution implements privacy-by-design and it offers feasible functionality for various sizes of workplace spaces. Using our tool, it will be finally possible to quantify which areas are at risk so to spatially and functionally re-plan a sustainable working space for the health of employees.
The solution we bring to the table
The technology we are developing is contactless in order to avoid further personal distress while localizing spaces at high risk. Our software uses standard cameras (e.g. IP-CCTV) already installed in the workplace and processes the video stream with advanced computer vision and deep learning techniques. The system outputs privacy-preserving information on the presence of people and on whether social distancing has been violated in the area. This information is then efficiently visualized to quantitively show if the workplace is complying with social distancing rules. The system also indicates precisely when and where a potential health treat is present during the day – always without disclosing any sensible information about the employers.
Our system is a technological answer to the many questions which are now faced by workers/customers, employers and certifying authorities:
Workers and Customers
- How can the workers and the customers be granted that the employer has correctly redesigned the working space in the safest way possible?
- How can the workers and the customers be granted that their fundamental privacy rights are respected while Social Distancing is monitored?
Employers
- How can the employer quantify the effectiveness of the implemented solutions?
- How can the employer scale up the monitoring of the whole workplace safety?
Certifying Authorities
We are able to provide a solution that could become an accepted worldwide quality standard protocol to be adopted also by National Authorities (National Health Institution, Appointed Authorities or others) to assess workplaces safety with respect to social distancing and provide advice, before sanctions, in order to optimize the workspaces monitored.
What it does
AI 4 resilient workplace wellness is a solution for smart monitoring of the social distancing between employees and customers on the scene. AI 4 resilient workplace wellness is able to quantify workplace effectiveness in preventing the possibility of distance violations. AI 4 resilient workplace wellness is privacy-by-design: it can be integrated in any CCTV IP camera network and no sensible data needs to be shared outside of it.
What we have done during the weekend
Having hacked already a privacy-by-design software for social distancing measuring, in these two days we have reformulated our vision to move towards a more implementative stage of our software development. We held discussions with our mentors, legal experts and business consultants to define a strategy to have the highest market penetration and the most plug&play integration of our system in a real workplace.
The solution’s impact to the crisis
There are no tools able to measure the health risk of a workplace in the current pandemic outbreak. Now imagine next week we deploy a functioning system which is ready to be installed in workspace “A” and provide quantitative reports on the risky areas at “A” to the national occupational safety insurance entities. These entities will be able to revise subjective information and propose a new, better, resilient design for the workspace to minimize not only Covid-19, but any virus spread at workplaces in the future.
The necessities in order to continue the project
The project has a clear roadmap ahead for the next 9 months that will be expanded soon with a structured business plan:
June 2020: Finalising software prototype with 24h/7d testing completed in three real scenarios (company workplace, airport, and a small shop).
Sept 2020: Deliver and install first system release with the interested customers that are ready to purchase our solution.
Dec 2020: Begin large scale commercialization with a finalised version of the software and visualisation tools.
Jan 2021: Release new products based on the original platform that can enhance further the safety of the workplace beyond covid-19 emergency
To accomplish these tasks we need resources to further improve the usability of the tool, such as software engineers, user interface designers, business developers and legal experts.
The value of our solution after the crisis
The functionalities of our system can be upgraded after the crisis to solve other problems related to the workplaces safety improvement. If thermal cameras are present, our system can be upgraded to screen body temperature, again with a privacy by design approach. People counting is another functionality that can be included to avoid overcrowded spaces. Intelligent access control can be implemented for verifying that the persons are wearing prescribed safety equipment.
These extra functions allow to revamp production in factories and offices safely and possibly extend the solution also to public spaces (arenas, shopping malls, markets, airports, stations) and schools, gyms, etc, in order to allow us to restart, after the pandemic, for a new – socially acceptable – normality.
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