By Matt Garman on September 15, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches into autumn, it continues to upend the usual rules of work, travel, education, and everyday life. Although specific guidance varies between countries, states, and even cities on how to safely navigate previously routine activities, certain safety measures are universal to prevent the spread of the virus. For instance, it is essential to wear a mask, remain socially distanced, stay home if you’re exhibiting symptoms or think you’ve been exposed, and clean surfaces regularly. We all share in the responsibility to follow these common sense guidelines, but it is also necessary for governments, businesses, schools, and other large organizations to look for ways to implement them at scale. This is an area where AWS customers and partners are stepping up, using the cloud to develop and deploy new services that can help large numbers of people to avoid infection. Their efforts are crucial to getting us through some of the worst impacts of COVID-19 and preparing us to address future outbreaks of disease.

Among the many steps taken to combat the virus, social distancing is considered one of the most effective ways to slow its spread. Technology can help business owners monitor compliance with social distancing guidelines and intervene if necessary to enforce it so that they can safely remain open. AWS customer iViu Technologies, a developer of indoor positioning technologies, adapted its anonymous data collection technology that studies customer shopping patterns in retail stores to also monitor customer traffic patterns in grocery stores, office buildings, and shopping centers. By monitoring occupancy levels of designated zones within buildings, the store can effectively manage store traffic to ensure shoppers are adhering to social distancing guidelines. A related technology developed by Australia’s Unleash live applies its proprietary machine learning solution that is built on AWS to extract visual data from existing camera infrastructure in cities and businesses to count the number and density of people in a live video feed. The system can identify crowding, analyze trends across the day, and even alert local government departments and transport authorities via text if the number of people gathered in close proximity crosses a threshold so that those authorities can ask those individuals to spread out or close down certain areas.

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