Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has procured a thermal and political imaging camera with face detection technology, that will allow screening to check people’s body temperatures, from a safe distance. The artificial intelligence-powered camera is procured for Thiruvananthapuram district.
The camera has been procured as the state is likely to receive an influx of non-resident Kerala population as well as those returning home from other states. The artificial intelligence-powered face detection facility of the camera will allow people’s body temperature to be detected even from a distance, thus ensuring more safety to the frontline workers conducting the screening.
On Saturday, in a Facebook post, Shashi Tharoor announced that the thermal camera has been purchased for the district through his MPLADS (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) fund, a proposal the MP had submitted in April.
“After a discussion between Thiruvananthapuram Collector K Gopalakrishnan and my team, it was brought to my attention that a thermal imaging camera with face detection technology was urgently needed in our district in order to scan from a safe distance and isolate those potentially having fever from among the huge influx of passenger flow that is seen at our airport and railway stations," Tharoor wrote in the Facebook post.
According to the post, due to the unavailability of thermal cameras in Asia, the procurement was done from Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Shashi Tharoor said that the cameras can be installed at the airport, railway station and medical college in Thiruvananthapuram. Adding that all the MPLADS funds have been exhausted, Shashi Tharoor said that they are approaching corporate groups asking them to come forward partnering with the district administration to procure more of the sophisticated thermal cameras before the state starts to receive the huge influx of expatriates.
When users on social media raised apprehensions about the use of facial recognition, Shashi Tharoor tweeted that the law should restrict the use of data only for the purpose for which it is collected, in this case, temperature measurement.
For all those who have raised concerns about the facial recognition element in the Thermal Scanner (similar to those I have myself earlier expressed), my answer: Law should restrict use of data only for the purpose for which it is collected, in this case temperature measurement. https://t.co/Pnd396gv3F
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 2, 2020
Read:
Watch: