UKRI highlights dRISK’s Artificial intelligence tool for social distancing

22nd Apr 2021 dRISK

…as a featured technical solution for tackling the impact of Covid-19

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has featured the dRISK social distancing toolbox in their technological solutions pages for tackling the impact of Covid 19.

Our work on this de minimis competition repurposed our existing object detection technology from monitoring traffic to monitoring pedestrian activity. This allowed us to create a ‘busyness’ map of London enabling commuters and shoppers to understand when was least busy to visit central London. This would allow users to plan their journey to minimize the risk of infection from the virus.

The tool also allows for case studies to be carried out on pedestrian crossings, traffic junctions and areas where the infrastructure makes it difficult to socially distance. Within a few hours, our tool is able to advise on improvements that could be made and thus keeping the public safe.

The tool is not only limited to the pandemic, it can be used to monitor the usage of cycle lanes, parks, car parks as well as assist councils on their drive towards vision zero. Vision Zero is the UK government’s drive towards zero road traffic deaths and serious injuries.

Read the full release here: https://www.ukri.org/our-work/tackling-the-impact-of-covid-19/addressing-technological-challenges/artificial-intelligence-tool-for-social-distancing/