Smart helmet capable of mass temperature screening comes to SA

According to the creators of the KC N901 smart helmet, Chinese firm KC Wearable, the helmet has been "well received by authorities" in countries such as China, Italy, The Netherlands and Dubai.

While there are a number of temperature scanning devices available on the market, Granule Holdings says the KC N901 smart helmet is distinguished by its ability to perform mass temperature screenings of up to 200 people per minute, its artificial intelligence (AI) features like face recognition and number plate recognition, and the ability for the device to be used both indoors and outdoors.

“The product offers the ability to do rapid screening and can be used for indoor and outdoor screening, which is important in our country in informal settlements, public transportation hubs, corporates, industrial plants and medical providers. It works on temperature recording and keeps a history of the individuals scanned,” says Jeremy Capouya, founder and CEO of Granule Holdings.

“It also incorporates AI that makes use of facial recognition and licence plate recognition. This makes it an efficient and easy device to use for screening at large public areas, busy economic hubs and boarder control.”

The smart helmet comes equipped with an Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) processor, an augmented reality display screen, an infrared camera for night use, as well as a visible light camera for daytime use. The wearer can detect the temperature, within 0.3 degrees Celsius, of people standing about two metres apart.

The device is designed to work offline, and all data is stored on the helmet itself with a 64GB internal memory. The AI capabilities support offline face and licence plate recognition. Face recognition allows the device to recognise a person’s face and pull up their personal information from its database, making it an ideal use case for airports, banking sector, mining sites and manufacturing plants, to manage employees and visitors.

With number plate recognition, the wearer can identify unauthorised vehicles recorded in its database. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capability make the data easily transferable at a later stage. The device also boasts AI-driven 3D barcode recognition and QR code identification to automatically record personal temperature information into the smart helmet’s database in real time, allowing paperless data logging.

The KC N901 smart helmet runs off the Windows and Android operating systems. The helmet also comes with a smartwatch, which can run all functions of the helmet, as required by the user.

“The helmets need less time and contact than traditional temperature screening products and thermometers and can measure temperatures from five metres away. An alert is triggered if a fever is detected,” adds Capouya.

“It is especially crucial at this time – when there is an urgent need to resume economic activity – that we put in place whatever measures we can to take the pressure off our healthcare system and help stop the spread of Covid-19.”