A “smart” camera to maintain social distancing
Among the technologies implemented against the Covid-19 epidemic, some use 3D imaging, also used in cinema and robotics. This is the case of a camera developed by the French company Stereo Labs.
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The start-up Stereo Labs, a “nugget” of French Tech, has developed an “intelligent” 3D camera that measures the spaces between people in companies, to encourage them to keep their distance.
franceinfo: how can your technology be useful for respecting distances between people?
Cécile Schmollgruber, co-founder and CEO of StereoLabs : We are developing smart cameras that analyze the trajectories of people in a physical space, for example, a restaurant, a store or a warehouse. If two people are too close to each other, an alert is broadcast, via a connected speaker. The idea is not to punish people, but to help them develop new habits. We have a lot of requests from doctors, in particular, who complain that their patients do not respect social distances in waiting rooms.
Is this process respectful of privacy?
No images are sent to a cloud or the Internet. The camera just transfers the images to a small box which will process them and send only alerts. We do not look at the face but only the physiognomy and the distances that separate people from each other. It is absolutely anonymous and the data is not accessible.
What is your technology usually used for?
Our technology allows machines to “see” like humans, with one left eye and one right eye, dramatically improving accuracy. StereoLabs got noticed a few years ago by Hollywood studios because our technology improves the visual comfort of three-dimensional films. We then moved to Los Angeles and worked on a lot of blockbusters, including the sequel toAvatar by James Cameron.
Today, we are working on innovative solutions around the smart city, including new generation store projects, without cash, like Amazon Go, and also on quite futuristic fleets of drones, to pick fruit, as well as different kinds. of autonomous robots.
