Companies fight coronavirus with tech solutions

Delhi-based Vehant Technologies that runs an artificial intelligence (AI)-based traffic enforcement solution (TES) has reconfigured its AI programme to launch what they call covid analytics. “This is an AI and computer vision driven image analytics solution which caters to the covid-19 related violations,” said Kapil Badreja, CEO & Co-Founder, Vehant Technologies.

The AI program detects violations like not wearing face mask and not maintaining social distancing, and also vehicle movement detection through automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) during traffic restrictions, he said.

Badraja said ANPR fuses advance techniques in geo-tagging and AI algorithms allowing traffic authorities to spot vehicles travelling beyond a certain distance and also pillion drivers that are not permitted during the lockdown period. Vehant’s ANPR system is currently used in Hyderabad by police authorities to track violations and will soon be launched in Allahabad and Raipur.

“Covid Analytics Suite is suitable for implementation in any existing surveillance system. With minor tweaking in the camera positioning & configurations, great results can be obtained,” added Badreja.

He said companies have shown a lot of interest in installing this camera which measures temperature and can also detect face-mask. His team is currently giving product demos to various airport authorities and IT companies in Delhi-NCR region.

“We are in touch with 10 smart cities and we are giving demos to those cities. There is also a interest at airports to deploy mask detection…its only over last 3-4 weeks we are getting queries for the same, so we see market going up, adds Badreja.

Global 3D printing firm Stratasys is working with automobile companies in leveraging their industrial 3D printers to manufacture face masks and other medical equipment that can be used during the crisis.

Rajiv Bajaj, managing director, Stratasys India and SEA, “We are working with some top tier automotive companies who have 3D printers for manufacturing automotive components. We are helping them print masks and create prototypes for ventilators.”

Several startups supported by Indian Institute of Technology Madras have also developed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as face shields and low-cost intubation boxes for dealing with covid-19 patients facing breathing issues.

Fabheads Automation has developed 3D-printed face shields that use flexible plastic frame without the requirement of elastic bands and are perfect to be worn for long hours. It uses a replaceable transparent sheet, which is inexpensive and can be easily taken off.

Initial batches of these innovations have already been supplied to frontline healthcare workers and are in the process of being scaled-up for mass production for deployment at hospitals and clinics in need across the country at affordable rates.

Dhinesh Kanagaraj, founder and CEO, Fabheads Automation said, “We have already supplied a few hundred face shields to various users such as police personnel and hospitals in Chennai and received excellent feedback. We are currently manufacturing a few hundred face shields per week using our 3D printing technology. In the next stage, we are getting ready to produce 5,000 pieces per day, with a significant decrease in per piece cost.”

IIT Delhi has decided to allow government and private researchers leverage its supercomputer PADUM for covid-19 research. The access to the resources will be allocated on merit basis for a duration of three months and ₹1 crore worth of computational time will be made available for free to the researchers.

“In these difficult times, sharing of resources is important in order to address the infrastructure requirements of researchers working on the Corona epidemic. It is important for scientists to collaborate with each other given the urgency of the situation,” said V Ramgopal Rao, director, IIT Delhi in a statement.