CHALLENGES OF THERMAL Cameras - by Healthvision
When the global pandemic was declared, Healthvision realised it needed to help businesses empower the safe return of their workforce during and after COVID-19 in the smartest, simplest and most accurate way possible.
WE ACTED swiftly, pivoting the business, which previously focused on the retail sector, to accommodate secure and seamless management of many thermal facial recognition cameras across multiple locations, on one platform, in the cloud or on-premise. Within ten days, we had successfully adapted the Healthvision platform to provide corporations with a solution they could roll out immediately and remotely. During implementation, we encountered two significant challenges, and this is how we overcame them.
1: Economic challenges lead to budget constraints
3RD QUARTER 2020
Despite our clients’ huge desire to implement the solution, Healthvision’s biggest challenge were the initial hardware costs. The initial capital investment for terminals was R35k, and we have since managed to reduce this to R29k. We implemented a manageable monthly pay-per-use license fee and reduced our margin on the hardware to only cover the necessary costs; modification, insurance, transport and installation. Thus in passing on any price decreases to our clients, we offer them the best value; the lowest possible cost on a high-quality product. Further to this, we simplified our pricing model into three components: • A size dependant platform fee. • A per-fee per scan, decreasing with scale. • An optional COVID-19 health questionnaire/declaration form fee.
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2: Privacy and Facial Recognition Algorithms
The controversies around facial recognition are quite wellknown and recently came into the spotlight again with the airing of John Oliver’s show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (episode 15, John Oliver explores the impact of facial recognition software on the world). It is also well-known that initial facial recognition algorithms were trained on limited, and often biased, datasets. This led to facial recognition algorithms not working on all races and genders equally. Healthvision worked to overcome this difficulty by ensuring our facial recognition algorithms do not work on faces, but instead irises. In addition, we have worked with users to ensure their faces are recognised, both with and without masks. We believe that facial recognition software should work equally as well, no matter who is having their temperature checked.
A Way Forward to Ethical Facial Recognition Healthvision believes we lead the way in ethical facial recognition camera usage because of our unique algorithms, and we strive to partner clients whose usage plan meets our principles. Our vision is to become a leader in ethical facial recognition and to use artificial intelligence for good. We’re purpose-driven to deliver seamlessly integrated health technology for you because your staffs’ health is a representation of your company’s health. Get in touch with us on info@heatvisionai.com or for more information, visit heatvisionai.com ai
