AI contributes to coronavirus diagnosis
Infrared thermometers are now used in most subway stations in China to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus pneumonia. Many stations have implemented an artificial intelligence based fever screening system developed by Beijing-based Megvii.
The system supports non-contact remote temperature screening from a distance of 3 meters.
"This system's margin of error is within 0.3 degree Celsius", said Liu Ruiwei, a senior product manager of Megvii.
It can send fever alerts for up to 15 people per second. Even for the subway stations with greater traffic, only one employee is required to work on-site, further reducing the risk of infection, he said.
"In light of the large group of returnees to major cities after the extended Spring Festival holiday, we built a team of about 100 people before Chinese Lunar New Year to develop the system.With the help of AI technology, we can track the whereabouts of people with fever as well as their close contacts," said Liu Ruiwei.
On 4th February, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology suggested in a public note that AI companies should work together to come up with solutions to discover, prevent and control NCP. More application scenarios should be explored and products that help with diagnosis and rapid testing should enter mass production.
The AI algorithm should be further optimized to help with the research of the gene sequencing of the virus and the development of vaccines and drugs, said the ministry.
Megvii is an AI company with core competency in deep learning. It provides fullstack solutions, which encompass algorithms, software and AI-empowered IoT devices, to the customers and have achieved leading positions across multiple industries. Megvii was on the two most recent 50 Smartest Companies lists published by MIT Technology Review in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
Co-founders Yin Qi, Tang Wenbin, Yang Mu all graduated from Yao Class, Tsinghua University in 2011. Yao Class was founded by Prof. Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, world-leading computer scientist in 2005 with a view to nurture promising undergraduate students in the field of computer science.
