Nation: CCTVs to keep an eye on social distancing

Dubai Police plan to monitor crowds by upgrading Oyoon project using AI

Dubai Police plan to use security cameras to detect people’s temperature on the streets and alert police about violations in social distancing in public places.

Brig Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, director-general of the artificial intelligence department at Dubai Police, said that through the use of AI, CCTV cameras will record the temperature of people in the streets, public places or shopping centres.

“Dubai Police will use AI through the Oyoon [‘eye’ in Arabic] project to monitor people’s temperature,” Brig Al Razooqi said in a virtual conference on Sunday night.

“The project was initially used to detect wanted people through facial recognition and behavioural analysis, but we have updated the camera’s system to monitor temperature as well.”

Alerts to control room

Brig Al Razooqi added that the cameras will also be able to detect the distance between people inside shopping centres and public places and issue alerts if they are standing too close to one another.

“AI can detect if people come closer than they should to one another, and the system will generate an alarm to the command room,” he said.

Dr Peter Clevsting, technical expert at the Gulf Cooperation Council Regional Secretariat for the EU CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) Risk Mitigation Centre of Excellence Initiative in Abu Dhabi, said AI can also be used to trace where people get the virus from.

“AI is a tool we can use. It will also be able to predict which patient is more severely affected than others,” he said.