We are creating some awesome events for you. Kindly bear with us.

HKU Develops App to Aid Child and Elder Protection

Image Credits: HKU, Press Release.

Recently, extra concerns have been raised regarding child safety after the alleged abuse and neglect reporting incidents at a children’s caring home, demanding better monitoring and enforcement of the law. Meanwhile, the Omicron outbreak has also placed a heavy burden on public health care and isolation facilities, where a surge of infection cases has been recorded.

Thus, video monitoring appears to be an alternative, helping to ease the shortage of healthcare staff at both clinical and elderly facilities during the pandemic situation. Nevertheless, security and privacy remain some of the concerns of video monitoring that have to be resolved. In light of this, the Data Science Lab at the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science (SAAS), The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has developed several real-time video analytics apps using the first Hong Kong-made edge computing AI chip donated by an HK-based technology company, making them able to detect human body movements (e.g., walking, falling, leaving the room, etc.) and facial expressions (e.g., crying, yelling, etc.).

Image: The apps can detect human body movements (e.g., walking, falling, leaving the room, etc.) and facial expressions (e.g., crying, yelling, etc.). source: HKU, Press Release

Applying the techniques of bounding box detection, object detection, and motion classification, the team built the apps with “ResNet-32”, a Deep Learning Neural Network specified in image recognition, and “Flasks”, the framework of programming language Python, for video analysis, and used over 5,000 images on average collected from the Internet to train each model.

Densifying the data centre network, the edge computing AI chip allows faster computing, better data security, and efficient control over the continuous operation – it is ten times faster than the market edge-based AI chip in terms of computation power.

Since the video analysis are done in the AI chip itself, it does not require running the apps in a cloud computing platform, thus overcoming the security and privacy concerns of video transmission on the Internet. In addition, the AI chip can be implemented in any device such as robotic pet, surveillance camera, etc. It can be used in homecare/childcare/elderly care centres, offices, shopping malls, or hotels for risk detection and personal care monitoring.

In the case of child abuse at children’s caring homes, the video analytics apps can be deployed for childcare monitoring. Also, the apps can assist nurses in monitoring patient risks in isolation wards, alerting them if patients leave the ward, asking for help or deliberately self-extubate their endotracheal tubes, and helping elderly homes to detect elderly care risks such as falling and yelling for help, etc.

The CEO of the tech company that donated the chip is the first edge computing AI chip developed by the firm in Hong Kong. He thanked the Data Science Lab for deploying the newly invented AI chip with their real-time novel video analytics apps that overcome the security and privacy concerns on video analytics and surveillance.

Other than security and safety monitoring, the AI chip can also be used in the processing and analysing big data in finance and medicine, for investment and disease diagnosis decision-making, virtual reality, robot automation, smart home, physical and cognitive training, drug and gene discover.

The Deputy Director of the HKU SAAS Data Science Lab stated that the Lab is currently researching a novel parallel and distributed AI algorithm and is planning to deploy it in an environment of clustered edge computing AI chips. In this way, real-time big data analytics with supercomputing power can be done and is a breakthrough in AI development.

About HKU SAAS Data Science Lab

The project team of the Data Science Lab at HKU comprises Head of Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science (SAAS) Professor Guosheng YIN, Director of the SAAS Data Science Lab Dr Eddy LAM, Deputy Director Dr Adela LAU, as well as undergraduate and taught postgraduate students in the Department.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Send this to a friend