Iris to keep an eye on distancing violations at two more places

Pilot project in market brought down violations significantly, say police

Published - August 17, 2020 12:29 am IST - CHENNAI

After implementing a pilot project at a wholesale vegetable market in Thirumazhisai, the Tiruvallur police have now deployed Iris, a gadget to ensure adherence to physical distancing norms, at two more points.

The second device has been installed at a supermarket in Theradi, which has an average footfall of 600-700 customers a day. Another has been installed at the Indian Bank near Kamarajar Statue, a prime point where a lot people walk in. Studies are on to identify more locations where there is crowding.

P. Aravindhan, Superintendent of Police, Tiruvallur, pointed out that since Iris was installed at the vegetable market, the number of violations had come down significantly, and the duration of a violation was less than a minute now. “There has been a drastic behavioural change amid people,” he said.

People who generally ignore pleadings of shopkeepers for maintaining physical distancing are responding to the more neutral and loud announcements, accompanied by a police siren, coming from the device. Clusters or group violations, that used to be 40-plus a day, have come down to just over 10 now. “The intervention was targeted. Instead of stationing the police round the clock, we now know when to deploy them at the market,” Mr. Aravindhan said.

Iris constantly monitors the field-of-view to identify three types of violations — normal (2 individuals coming closer, violating physical distancing norms), cluster (a group of people — more than 2 individuals) and persistent (violators not moving away even after warnings). On detecting a violation, the device makes a loud announcement, warning people to maintain distancing. If the violators do not respond or move away to ensure distancing, it starts making a louder and shriller announcement, till the violators correct themselves.

Aiding self-correction

Sakthi Saravanan, founder and CEO of Secquraise Technologies, and P.R. Rajesh, of Global Thermal Control System Pvt. Ltd., who jointly designed, developed and installed Iris, said the model of intervention at the right time, aids self-correction and does not burden the police, who are already stretched.

“The number of violations detected is a key metric tracked and the daily count has come down by 55%, compared to the early days. Data on violations is shared with the authorities,” said Mr. Rajesh. “The maximum duration of violations, that used to be in the range of 5-plus minutes, is a less than a minute now. Persistent/long-duration violations have come down from 50-plus a day to 20 a day,” Mr. Saravanan said.

According to the duo, shopkeepers and other staff have started intervening when shrill announcements start asking violators to comply. This has helped improve compliance, they said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.