Amazon tackles coronavirus with Distance Assistant
Amazon has deployed its new Distance Assistant solution at a handful of its buildings.
This is a magic mirror like tool that helps employees practice physical distancing.
They receive live feedback on this via a 50 inch monitor, a camera, and a local computing device. The standalone unit uses machine learning models to differentiate people from their surroundings. Combined with depth sensors, it creates an accurate distance measurement between associates.
As people walk past the camera, the monitor displays live video with visual overlays to show if associates are within six feet of one another. Those remaining six feet apart are highlighted with green circles, while those who are closer together are highlighted with red circles.
“We’ve heard that employees find value in getting immediate visual feedback, and site leaders are welcoming another safety measure,” says Brad Porter, an Amazon VP who leads the e-commerce giant’s robotics initiatives including robotic drive units, recent Canvas acquisition, the Scout delivery bot programme and Prime Air drone delivery.
“Based on that positive employee feedback, we will be deploying hundreds of these units over the next few weeks. We are also beginning the process to open source the software and AI behind this innovation so that anyone can create their own Distance Assistant.”