To combat the spread of the coronavirus, many health experts around the world have advised people to practice social distancing. This means that people should stand at a distance away from each other to prevent the virus from transmitting, or at least make it a bit more difficult for it to find a new host.
Over at Amazon, the company has announced a new feature they’ll be implementing in its warehouse called “Distance Assistant”. This will rely on augmented reality, time-of-flight sensors, and also AI to help enforce social distancing rules amongst its warehouse workers by letting them know if they get too close to each other.
According to Amazon, “As people walk past the camera, a monitor displays live video with visual overlays to show if associates are within 6 feet of one another. Individuals remaining 6 feet apart are highlighted with green circles, while those who are closer together are highlighted with red circles. The on-screen indicators are designed to remind and encourage associates to maintain appropriate distance from others.”
Amazon is not the first to employ the use of AR to help with social distancing. Previously, we’ve seen similar efforts rolled out to apps such as Snapchat, and Google themselves have also used AR to help people practice social distancing.