Two IIT-B startups design temperature sensors to detect Covid suspects in a crowd

Two startups incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, have designed temperature-sensing devices that work on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine

Two startups incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, have designed temperature-sensing devices that work on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. These devices can scan a large group of people at a time for body temperatures to aid government agencies in detecting Covid-19 patients and carriers as the lockdown measures ease across the country.

HT Image

Faclon Labs, which works on providing technology solutions for reducing operating costs of companies, is currently working with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to set up automatic plug-and-go screening devices that can be mounted on a wall or tripod. These devices capture thermal snapshots of individuals and activate alarms upon detecting those with fever.

“The camera is a plug and play setup that uses artificial intelligence to localise and detect a person in its field of view and analyses it to get the thermal data to identify the body temperature. Once the temperature is higher than the threshold, relevant people are alerted to take necessary actions,” said Parth Chaudhary, heading the business development division of Faclon. The startup is in the process of applying for a patent, he added.

Augle AI, another startup, has designed a temperature sensing system that can skim through hundreds of people moving in public places. Tejendu Mouli, the head of their technology team, said, “We are integrating this (device) with our existing facial recognition system to strengthen the safety and security in offices, government buildings, public places, malls – any place where people gather in large numbers.” The team said that the facial recognition module can help identify those with high body temperatures and aid healthcare agencies to identify carriers of the infection. They also provide drone-based crowd analytics for quarantined areas for increasing the safety of police officials and health workers.

Both startups were mentored by the Desai Sethi Centre School of Entrepreneurship.