Contingency Technology Solutions for the prevention and control of COVID-19: work in progress

At the beginning of the COVID-19 contingency, electronic security manufacturers began to develop technological solutions for the prevention and control of the pandemic. Many of them were already available in the market, but with the health crisis, they acquired a new meaning as the fixed and manual thermal cameras, the metal arches to which temperature detection was added, the hand thermometers or the video analysis technologies that were adapted to the new reality and needs.

All these new developments were added to those already existing in the market to respond to the demand of private and public institutions that needed to create filters at the accesses to their facilities to detect and prevent possible cases of COVID-19, and thus reduce the risk of contagion and spread of the epidemic.

In Ikusi, as a company specialized in security projects for multiple infrastructures, from the beginning of the contingency, our objective was to support our clients and the public with technological security solutions and services. From our experience, we have been deploying a proposal that has been in continuous construction to solve the specific needs of the clients and incorporating the proposals that the different manufacturers were making available to the market. That is why Ikusi’s portfolio of technological security solutions and services has been progressively incorporating new proposals.

One of the tools that we proposed at the beginning of the contingency, supported by our experience in this field, was the monitoring and analysis of potential scenarios due to the impact of the COVID-19 through the deployment of a map of high-risk areas.

Complex solutions were accompanied by solutions such as automated hand sanitizers, which work without contact and are recommended for daily use in places where access to public sites or private companies or the deployment of infrared temperature detection arcs. These arcs added new capabilities to their routine metal detection work and issued audible alerts when they detected people exceeding temperature limits determined by authorities or managers of a company, institution or infrastructure.

More recently, Ikusi has incorporated into its proposal in LATAM facial recognition and temperature measurement terminals, which can be used in conjunction with access controls, allowing or denying access to people with high temperatures. They can even detect the use of mouth covers, denying access if people do not have them.

All these functions are configurable as required by the end user, because we are aware that not all sectors or all companies, institutions or infrastructures have the same needs.

Other of the most demanded solutions in this stage are the solutions for the capacity control of people in critical spaces. Ikusi proposed a solution with video analytics from existing manufacturers in the market, orienting its use to have real time information on the occupation of spaces to avoid crowding by sending audio or visual alerts when the limit of people in a particular area are exceeded.

Ikusi is in a “work in progress” mode, closely following the evolution of the pandemic and we are in constant communication with manufacturers to receive from them the latest technological solutions to continue guaranteeing people’s health and business continuity in these times of health crisis.