AI-powered solutions play major role in virus fight

By Joo Kyung-don

SEOUL, April 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korean IT solution providers are introducing various artificial-intelligence (AI)-based solutions to help the country's fight against the novel coronavirus, industry insiders said Thursday.

LG CNS Co., an IT service unit under LG Group, said it has recently launched an AI-powered facial recognition entrance gate control system at its headquarters in Seoul.

The system can recognize employees' faces even if they are wearing protective masks. It can also deny entry of employees not wearing face masks and show a message telling them to use masks.

As part of its virus prevention measures, South Korea has been asking people to wear masks at all times, especially when staying indoors.

LG CNS said its system is also equipped with heat-scanning functions, thus barring entrance by people with body temperature above 37.3 degrees Celsius.

Hancom Group, South Korea's leading software developer, said it has been offering an AI-powered phone calling system, known as Hancom AI Check25, for free to help local municipalities monitor those in self-quarantine.

The outbound call system, co-developed with Chinese AI firm iFlytek, asks people about their health conditions and can quickly analyze data from their answers. Its AI voice assistants can make many phone calls at once, allowing authorities to save time and check quarantined people efficiently.

The AI call center platform is currently used by cities, like Seoul and Daegu. Hancom said Naver Business Platform Corp., an IT infrastructure management firm, is also supporting systems by proving cloud infrastructure.

In the wake of the novel coronavirus outbreak, South Korea's ICT ministry has since last month been supporting IT firms that develop AI algorithms or solutions for the containment of COVID-19.

It has been helping some 800 firms and institutions by providing high-performance computing resources, as well as cloud services.

kdon@yna.co.kr
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