Ukrainian startup is looking for those who came into contact with infected coronavirus
Ukrainian startup Traces AI introduced a solution that allows finding people in contact with an infected coronavirus. It is already used by a number of American companies. AIN.UA journalist found out from the founders how the algorithm works.
HOW DID THE IDEA COME ABOUT
According to the creators, the practice of Contact tracing is quite old and is used in many countries during the coronavirus pandemic. Traditionally, this happens as follows: a patient with a confirmed diagnosis is personally asked where he was, with whom he spoke, and so on. These people are contacted and quarantined.
This practice allows you to quickly quench an outbreak, but is resource intensive. Patient data may be inaccurate or distorted. Traces AI suggests finding potentially infected people using video.
WHAT IT IS
The main product of Traces AI is an alternative to Face recognition technology. With the help of artificial intelligence, the company’s algorithm finds a person without focusing on the face. In the frame, a white pixel mask is superimposed on it. The technology analyzes more than 2000 parameters, taking into account growth, clothing details, etc. For the search using data from surveillance cameras, it can take from 5 to 10 seconds.
In the situation with coronavirus, the team modified its basic technology and taught to track not one person, but a group of people. Now the algorithm can be used for Contact tracing. It allows detecting on video the confirmed carrier of the virus and all those who have contacted it for a certain time.
HOW DOES TECHNOLOGY WORK
The company, which is aware of infections among its employees, provides an archive of records from surveillance cameras, as well as information about a person with confirmed COVID-19. Traces AI analyzes the records and notes the moments of contact of the patient with other people, verifying their personality. At the exit, the customer receives a “contact card”.
According to the creators, the idea was easier to implement on current clients, since their data from cameras was already uploaded to the Traces AI server. Given the various technical capabilities of the system and the connection speed, transferring from only 1000 cameras of new clients can take from 3 to 10 hours.
So, for clients from the Traces AI database, less than an hour passes from the moment of data transfer to the moment of returning the results. According to the company, the infrastructure is created for each customer, which can carry out searches in the real time with a delay of less than 1 second. This means that if the client has 20,000 cameras, the system will find the right person in 2 seconds. However, the main part of the time is the verification of persons who have come into contact with the sick person.
IN WHICH COMPANIES THE ALGORITHM IS USED
Traces AI does not disclose which companies it cooperates with, as it works with them on a non-disclosure basis. However, representatives said that most of the algorithm is effective in large industries.
“These cases were in factories in Texas and New York. Imagine a situation where in a factory with 120 employees, one person fell ill. In this case, there are two ways – to completely close the production or to find everyone who came into contact with the infected and quarantine them. Contact tracing helps with the latter”,- Konstantin Shish, founder of Traces AI, says.
PLANS
Before the situation with the coronavirus escalated into a worldwide pandemic, the company was in talks with some US airports. However, now this is no longer an urgent offer for them: air travel is mostly closed, and any person arriving from abroad in any case should go to self-isolation.
Current startup clients have switched to total quarantine mode. Therefore, Traces AI is in talks with countries where technology can still be effective. In particular, with India.
Previously, we wrote that The Ukrainian team has created an application to combat coronavirus. But without state support it is practically impossible to develop it.
Source: ain.ua
