IISER Bhopal innovators develop unique monitoring system to maintain COVID rules

Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) -Bhopal innovators have developed a low-cost ‘Crowd and Mask’ Monitoring System, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The system installed in the IISER Bhopal campus will detect and alert whenever someone is not wearing a face mask or social distancing is not maintained inside the college campus. The institute is commencing the process of bringing the students back to campus in phases. 

The 'Crowd and Mask' monitoring system is powered with Artificial Intelligence (AI). The monitoring system has a camera that alerts every time it detects people inside the campus not maintaining at least three feet of distancing with each other or not wearing a mask. 

Know the innovators

Dr. P.B. Sujit, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, along with Dr. Mitradip Bhattacharjee and Dr. Santanu Talukdar, Assistant Professors, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Dr. Venkateshwar Rao, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IISER Bhopal, and BSMS Student Kasi Viswanath has developed this AI-enabled device that can replicate manual policing to ensure the COVID-19 prevention norms are being followed inside the campus.

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Elaborating about this innovation, P.B. Sujit, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, IISER Bhopal, said, “We wanted a simple advisory system to warn students of breaching social distancing norms at selected locations.”

“Given the opportunity, this device can be deployed at various crowded public places to ensure that the basic safety rules are not violated in this tough time of Covid-19 pandemic”, the IISER Bhopal team said. 

How does it work? 

To achieve the desired outcome, the innovators used the principles of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML) in a high definition camera that is attached to a microchip computer and a 5V battery in a 3D printed case to monitor the movement of people inside the campus. If the camera detects that the social distancing and mask norms were not being followed, the device starts alerting the crowd with a pre-recorded message.

According to a press statement, the innovators deployed the device at the campus in October 2020 and continuously improved it till it became stable with minimum false alarms. As a result, people have become sensitive to the social distancing violation and are following the safety protocol with more caution. The innovators are planning to open-source the complete system along with a how-to-use tutorial for the betterment of society in such disruptive times. 

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