{"id":50768,"date":"2020-05-14T15:55:31","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T15:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/levelfivesupplies.com\/?p=50768"},"modified":"2022-03-23T12:50:41","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T12:50:41","slug":"social-distance-monitoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/levelfivesupplies.com\/social-distance-monitoring\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Distance Monitoring"},"content":{"rendered":"
Social distance monitoring is the buzz phrase of getting out and beginning the long painful journey back to what might approach normality, the ‘new normal’, at least before a mass-produced vaccine might be available in 6-12 months’ time. But where the public coalesce in densely populated areas – shopping centres, reception and lobby areas and at gatherings, how can social distancing be measured and people protected?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\n
One such solution, video analytics, has its fans, but the simple physics of light undermines the approach.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\n
“Using a safe, well established and high-resolution technology borrowed from autonomous cars and surveying, LiDAR<\/a>, means that pedestrian position, distance to other pedestrians, and people counting – all within the parameters of GDPR (since not personally identifiable information is gathered) – is fairly straightforward, “ explains Alex Lawrence-Berkeley, who runs Level Five Supplies<\/a>, a technology company specialising in supplying cutting edge sensor technologies<\/a> to robotics companies and universities around Europe. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\n Indeed, Apple’s latest iPad includes the technology, using it for augmented reality tools and games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\n “The problem is that cameras are ‘passive’, and rely on photons coming from a source (lights, or the sun) to illuminate a target, but then you still can’t accurately define size, location, and direction over a wide area. The simplest way around this is to use an active sensor, LiDAR, which sends a tiny harmless packet of photons on a similar wavelength to remote controls (invisible to the human eye) and, because the speed of light is constant, the time it takes for the beam to return gives you very accurate range.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\n