According to the Tainan City Government, Tainan City promotes “Smart Epidemic Prevention Crowd Control System” to check the crowds of people at the market while at home.
To provide a safe shopping environment for residents, Tainan City launched Taiwan’s very first “smart crowd control system” (市場智慧分流) at traditional markets. The National Center for High-Performance Computing (國家高速網路與計算中心) and Nantian Digital TV (南天数位有線電視) worked together to develop an “AI epidemic prevention system” (AI智慧防疫系統) which uses image recognition technology to estimate the number of people in the area and whether they are wearing face masks. If the system detects a shopper without a mask on or when the number of people in the space is about to exceed the maximum capacity, it will start to publicly broadcast warning announcements. This not only increases epidemic prevention management performance but also reduces required manpower.
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Tainan City pioneered the "Smart Market Crowd Control System", together with the National Center for High-Performance Computing and Nantian Digital TV to jointly develop the "AI Smart Epidemic Prevention System". Photo/Provided by Tainan City Government
Economic Development Bureau (經濟發展局) Director Chen Kai-ling (陳凱凌) explained that the AI epidemic prevention system’s smart crowd control function categorizes crowd sizes in traditional markets into green, orange, and red-light status. A green light indicates shoppers are welcome, an orange light indicates the crowds are a bit large, and red means the market is very crowded and shoppers are advised to avoid the area. Through real-time images, the system can rapidly estimate the number of people in the market and detect if they are wearing masks or not. If the number of people reaches orange light status or when there are people not wearing face masks, the system will start to broadcast reminders to the public, asking them to comply with crowd control guidelines.
Currently, the AI smart crowd control system has been test-launched at six locations: Hsinying First Public Market (新營第一公有市場), Matou Fifth Public Market (麻豆市五公有市場), Chiali Chungshan Public Market (佳里中山公有市場), Liuchia Public Market (六甲公有市場), Hsinying Chungcheng Road Private Dusk Market (新營中正路黃昏民有市場), and Hsinying Bus Company’s Hsinying terminal station (新營客運新營總站). The public can easily check the current crowd in markets by going online to Tainan Smart Epidemic Prevention System via their phones or computers.
Tainan City Mayor Huang Wei-Che (黃偉哲) said that the computer system can estimate the crowd of people and politely remind the people to wear face masks. However, Huang Wei-Che emphasized that everybody should work together and follow epidemic prevention protocols. Everybody should be disciplined.
