S.Korea to use facial recognition to track COVID-19 patients

South Korea will soon roll out a pilot project to use artificial intelligence (AI), facial recognition and thousands of closed-circuit video cameras to track the movement of people infected with COVID-19.

The nationally-funded project in Bucheon, one of the country’s most densely populated cities on the outskirts of Seoul, is due to become operational in January.

According to a 110-page business plan from the city submitted to the Ministry of Science and ICT (Information and Communications Technology), The system uses AI algorithms and facial recognition technology to analyse footage gathered by more than 10,820 security cameras and track an infected person’s movements, anyone they had close contact with, and whether they were wearing a mask.

Governments worldwide have turned to new technologies and expanded legal powers to try to stem the tide of COVID-19 infections.

China, Russia, India, Poland and Japan as well as several US states are among the governments to have rolled out or at least experimented with facial recognition systems for tracking COVID-19 patients.

The Bucheon official said, “The system should reduce the strain on overworked tracing teams in a city with a population of more than 800,000 people, and help use the teams more efficiently and accurately.”

It still relies, however, on a large number of epidemiological investigators, who often have to work 24-hour shifts, frantically tracing and contacting potential coronavirus cases.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said, “It has no current plans to expand the project to the national level. It said the purpose of the system was to digitize some of the manual labour that contact tracers currently have to carry out.

“The Bucheon system can simultaneously track up to 10 people in five to 10 minutes, cutting the time spent on manual work to trace one person, which takes about half an hour to one hour.”

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Kamila/Reuters