BEIJING: A man who had travelled to Wuhan was surprised when police showed up at his door after he returned home, asking to check his temperature. The man, who had quarantined himself at home in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, said he had not told anyone about his recent trip to the city.
But by trawling through travel data from Wuhan, local authorities were able to identify him and dispatch officers to his home last week, according to a newspaper article posted by the Nanjing government. As authorities race to contain the spread of a new virus Beijing is turning to a familiar set of tools to find and prevent potential infections: data tracking and artificial intelligence.
Several Chinese tech firms have developed apps to help people check if they have taken the same flight or train as confirmed virus patients, scraping data from lists published by state media. In Guangzhou, southern Guangdong province, robots at one public plaza have even been deployed to scold passersby who are not wearing masks, according to the state-run Global Times.
And in Beijing, one neighbourhood committee responsible for an apartment complex of about 2,400 households said they used flight and train data to keep track of everyone’s recent travel record. “Use big data technology to track, screen priority (cases), and effectively forecast the development of the epidemic in real time,” China’s National Health Commission told local governments in a statement on Tuesday.
While neighbourhoods and office buildings rely primarily on hand-held thermometers, public transport hubs are also trialling fever detection systems that use artificial intelligence and infrared cameras. In Beijing, a system developed by Chinese search giant Baidu screens travellers at the Qinghe railway station using infrared and face detection technology, which automatically photographs each person’s face. If someone has a body temperature of 37.3 degrees Celsius or above, the system sets off an alarm — prompting a secondary check by station staff.
But by trawling through travel data from Wuhan, local authorities were able to identify him and dispatch officers to his home last week, according to a newspaper article posted by the Nanjing government. As authorities race to contain the spread of a new virus Beijing is turning to a familiar set of tools to find and prevent potential infections: data tracking and artificial intelligence.
Several Chinese tech firms have developed apps to help people check if they have taken the same flight or train as confirmed virus patients, scraping data from lists published by state media. In Guangzhou, southern Guangdong province, robots at one public plaza have even been deployed to scold passersby who are not wearing masks, according to the state-run Global Times.
And in Beijing, one neighbourhood committee responsible for an apartment complex of about 2,400 households said they used flight and train data to keep track of everyone’s recent travel record. “Use big data technology to track, screen priority (cases), and effectively forecast the development of the epidemic in real time,” China’s National Health Commission told local governments in a statement on Tuesday.
While neighbourhoods and office buildings rely primarily on hand-held thermometers, public transport hubs are also trialling fever detection systems that use artificial intelligence and infrared cameras. In Beijing, a system developed by Chinese search giant Baidu screens travellers at the Qinghe railway station using infrared and face detection technology, which automatically photographs each person’s face. If someone has a body temperature of 37.3 degrees Celsius or above, the system sets off an alarm — prompting a secondary check by station staff.
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