In the battle against COVID-19, emerging Chinese technologies have stood out by making immense contributions in an unexpected, creative, and amazingly responsive way.
MicroMultiCopter, a Shenzhen-based tech firm, deployed drones to detect residents’ body temperature and transport medical samples.
Also, a hotel designated for travelers in isolation sent robot waiters to deliver meals in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province.
Beyond robots and drones, China has mobilized a surveillance system to monitor infected individuals and enforce quarantines.
Chinese high-tech firms, SenseTime and Megvii, for example, both known for their facial recognition technology, have developed and deployed AI-based contactless temperature detection software. SenseTime has also developed and deployed a “Smart AI Epidemic Prevention Solution,” which, by integrating AI algorithms with infrared thermal technology, can detect a fever within 0.3 C accuracy and identify individuals not wearing a face mask with over a 99% success rate, according to Harvard Business Review.
In China’s capital Beijing and in central China’s Wuhan, the hardest-hit city of the coronavirus, online contact tracking apps have become a digital assurance for people to travel around after the lockdowns. Beijing’s HealthKit (Jiangkangbao) and Wuhan’s Ehuiban assign individuals the colors of green, yellow, or red, depending on whether they should be allowed into public spaces or be quarantined at home.
Chinese artificial intelligence giant Baidu has been facilitating the resumption of work and production amid and after the fight against coronavirus with spatiotemporal big data and information point data, as well as providing travel services for over 2.5 billion trips. For example, users can find fever clinics, designated hotels for quarantine, and regions with low-risk of infections in its map app.
Following Baidu, Neshan Maps, the most popular map app in Iran, also updated their services by allowing users to share information as a way to help them avoid heavy pedestrian traffic areas. by Miao
