Amid covid-19, digital signage combined with AI-based detection software can display occupancy warnings or other messages to help with disease control and prevention.
Digital signage has become an important marketing and navigation tool for various end user entities. Now, amid covid-19, digital signage combined with
AI-based detection software can display occupancy warnings or other messages to help with disease control and prevention.
Needless to say, covid-19 has become a major health threat across the globe, infecting nearly 10 million and killing over 470,000. This has prompted government and health officials across the globe to issue various guidelines to curb the disease’s spread. Stores, for example, have to abide by maximum capacity rules. Here in Taiwan, masks are required on trains and mass rapid transit.
To help end user entities enforce these guidelines and
control people flow amid covid-19, Navori Labs has launched QL Access Control, an add-on to the company’s forthcoming QL digital signage software enabling end users to monitor and secure entry and exit traffic in compliance with the latest health regulations.
According to Florent Hediard, Global Marketing Manager of Navori Labs, the technology combines digital signage and AI to benefit end users in different ways, even in disease prevention and control. “Several years ago, we launched an R&D program dedicated to AI in digital signage, with a focus on our new computer vision (CV) software. This grew out of simple considerations around how data science is the future,” Hediard said. “The recent pandemic requires that public areas and facilities manage visitor traffic flow, which means counting, screening, guiding and informing visitors, on an evolutionary platform that could be used immediately. That is where QL Access Control came into the picture, combining the interest of the two solutions in one: digital signage and computer vision.”
Occupancy and mask detection
According to Hediard, QL Access Control interoperates with IP cameras for live streaming and monitoring purposes. “It works with multiple entrances and counts in real-time the number of visitors inside while comparing it to the maximum capacity you defined yourself, leaving you with a clear number of how many more people can enter at any given moment,” he said. “When the maximum occupancy capacity is reached, the system pre-empts commercial content to display clear and concise instructions on screen. It tells visitors if they should enter or wait. If they are to wait, the system will indicate the estimated wait time based on recent data points.”
Further, the solution can
detect whether someone is wearing a mask, and identifies specific details – such as fabric types, shapes, colors, and patterns – of each mask worn. “If local authorities require that a mask be worn, QL Access control can detect visitors without a mask with 99 percent reliability and if necessary, issue a visual and audible alert. The CV allows silhouette and body detection including the face; if someone has only part of his face masked, the QL Access Control detects it immediately and trigger the instruction in the display,” Hediard said. “Our clients are free to create their own templates, personalize their messaging, and trigger scenarios quickly and easily.”
According to Hediard, the solution can be useful even during peaceful times and is ideal for all verticals that have the need to manage people flow. “Our clients can take advantage of their customers’ wait times to improve their visitors experience with entertaining and engaging content: live social media feeds, audio, RSS/XML data and calendar events with no programming required,” he said. “Indeed, the retail market benefits, as do transportation centers (airports, train stations), education campuses and facilities (schools/universities), arenas and stadiums, casinos, corporate business, museums and more.”