Humans suck so much at beating this pandemic that Microsoft has made an AI to enforce social distancing Microsoft's Spatial Analysis, announced at its Ignite virtual event today, uses artificial intelligence to count the number of people in a room and monitor social distancing. Spatial Analysis is a feature of Redmond's Cognitive Services, a raft of machine-learning tools intended to be easy to deploy. Although this collection …
I'm sure Borkzilla will have no problem putting Azure containerized thingamajigs onto people's mobile phones in order for its AI to count the people in the same room.
I'm also pretty sure that counting is something that computers hardly need AI for - don't they do that out of the box ?
This is definitely a solution in search of a problem. A BluTooth mobile app reporting to Borkzilla Central and counting the number of answering apps in the vicinity would have been quite enough - but hey, I'm just a programmer.
Does Micros~1 foresee ADDITIONAL NEED for such an "app", in the future??? Something that would justify its existence, especially with 3 companies competing for vaccine trials at the moment...
In ANY case, I sure as hell *HOPE* *NOT* - this ONE time is *BAD* *ENOUGH*. NEVER AGAIN *I* say!!!
Judging by this, you won't see major rollout till Q2 2021, CDC (the sciency part, not Roger Stone's nutjob friend) was saying Q3 for a major rollout.
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/novel-coronavirus-landscape-covid-19-(5).pdf
It depends if it spreads too much and mutates too much. You have the S, G and D strains as the main strains currently, with the D being far more deadly, and G being far more infectious. But who knows what new strains appear if its allowed to spread far and wide in the USA.
The earliest I can find in that spreadsheet, NCT04516746 has a quick rough and ready trial end of Dec 2020, and actual trial end of Oct 2021. Others expect to deliver full P3 results March 5th 2021.
I'm not sure an AI to enforce social distancing is the best solution. If multiple people are close together that may not be a problem if they're a family or social grouping, its probably better to clump those together and separate them from other family groupings. AI looking at cameras won't tell you their interrelationship.
Masks are the easiest tell. It's pretty easy to see who is wearing a mask and whether it's worn properly.
In Thailand, early on after re-opening, they enforced screens between people in restaurants, but it was dumb, families were spread out across tables and intermixed with others, and it was quickly dropped in favor of one-social-group-one-table and space the tables instead. Shared buffet restaurants were kept closed untill a month after zero cases were reached.
That eliminated the virus totally. But that was the 'S' strain, the new strains G and D are popping up in returnees to Thailand.
Masks were and are still enforced, and with 100% success. No local cases of Covid19, apart from a DJ arrested on drugs charges that tested positive with the 'G' strain. That led to a mass testing, but so far, 3 weeks and the masks are holding the line.
I see Trump is trying to undermine mask wearing, and has his rally's maskless, indoors. He says the risk is low, his stage is well away from everyone so that's alright then, he's safe. *He* has social distancing, his supporters he doesn't care about, but he clearly understands the risk to *him*.
Clippy: "Hey, it looks like you have too many people in this room. Would you like me to report this to the Social Distancing Police?"
Me: "No that's my family"
Clippy: "Hey, it looks like you have too many people in this room. Would you like me to report this to the Social Distancing Police?"
Me: "No that's my family"
Clippy: "Happy to say that I have reported this to the Police. Have a Nice Day."
This just goes to show the level of stupidity we are at.
To work everyone needs be counted, maybe a camera or mobile device. If it is the latter then unless there is a unique App installed, multiple devices held by one person will screw it up. The total reliance on Apps and "AI" to do something simply just give some false sense of achievement and security just because it is "smart technology".
If it is a camera then the system needs to could the heads, all possible but it does not need to be "AI" and then what? Try and get people to leave if there are too many, lock the doors so people cannot get in? Given how stupid many of the British public appear to be in complying with any guidelines (even if they are "confusing" I don't really see how it adds value.
The one place where some sort of technical solution could help is larger shops where you count in and out. That however does not need "AI" it just needs a counter.
Every supermarket already has CCTV cameras. Set this to watch every aisle, and it can tell you where crowding happens. Or, it could be set to trigger an alarm if anyone has been standing in one place - such as a checkout queue - for more than five minutes.
It took me whole seconds to come up with that application. Pretty sure you can think of more, if you try.
I am in favour of the Soylent system for population control.
Every shop, restaurant and public place should have random trap doors leading to 'processing' drpartments. When excessive head counts are detected, random trapdoors should open until numbers are down to a satisfactory level, this system is perfect for implementing with AI.
"Oh, this is not for surveillance, no, we will only use it for Covid19"
Well, here's a traffic camera sequence from an EU country when the amount of traffoc cameras was dramatically expanded:
"Oh no, we will only use them in case of a terror attack, never as speeding cameras"
"Oh no, we will only use them to monitor traffic, never as speeding cameras"
"Oh no, we will only use them to check for vehicle insurance, never as speeding cameras"
You guessed it, those "we will never" cameras are now enrolled in speed control. It took about 5 years.
Add to this that we're talking about the makers of about the least secure OS on the planet, and I'd tell them to use the cameras for self- examination. Rectally, and while retaining the anti-pigeon spikes on the housing.
Yes, I haven't had any coffee yet, why?
:)
"Not that I trust anything to do with it from Gates, who of course is in it for the money."
The same Gates that has little to do with Microsoft these days and donates billions to eradicating disease and improving education?
Or do you mean the gates that your mates at Qanon believe in that he implanting a non-existent technology into our veins to track us for err...not sure why...5g?
this petty pace.
In the case of the UK, or rather England, tomorrow is the launch of the latest contact tracing phone app.
Ta daa!
OK, well, let us just hope it turns out better than the previous 'world beating' one. I will certainly be interested in any article the Reg publishes and the comments on how effective it is.
The most interesting thing I've heard on the news recently about protecting yourself from Covid-19 is wearing glasses. As the eye is a very pleasant environment for airborne viruses and bacteria to enter the human body, wearing glasses could be an effective way to reduce your chances of infection.
<As an aside: Does the diagram in the article remind anyone else of the London Eye?>
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
