How Blimp monitors social response to anti-COVID measures
Almost a year after the outbreak of the pandemic, a climate of great uncertainty still remains. Globally, we are going through a period in which we understand less and less about what is happening around us, while our rhythms of life are punctuated by personal restrictions and limitations. Although it was designed to operate in the advertisement, retail and event sectors, since March 2020 Blimp has expanded its scope, adapting its technology to the pandemic context. It has found wide acceptance in industry for controlling social distancing among employees and the use of personal protective equipment. In this way it has opened up to new markets and developed major new partnerships.
Not only that, thanks to its head-counter devices, today Blimp carries out continuous observation of some neuralgic points in the Milan Metropolitan Area (and other Italian and soon European cities), where monitoring of vehicular traffic and people has become necessary.
The objective of such monitoring is to measure the impact of the anti-Covid measures imposed by the various Dpcms.
The analysis conducted in the Milan Metropolitan Area shows:
- The effect of anti-COVID measures on vehicular traffic at the entrance and exit of the city’s main roads.
- The pedestrian traffic in the center, nightlife areas and more residential neighborhoods.
- The time slots when a major change in city traffic occurs.
The results are used as the basis for analyzing citizen behavior: extremely accurate data that no other major digital or telecommunications player is currently able to provide while drawing on major collection sources. Blimp’s sensors can measure foot traffic and related characteristics, such as age or gender, and perfectly distinguish the type of vehicle passing through, from heavy trucks to ultralight vehicles.
The data provided by Blimp are regularly adopted by SkyTG24, a number of major national newspapers and made available to the public administration with total respect for citizens’ privacy.
Precisely the protection of privacy is one of the founding values of the company. In fact, all data are collected in an anonymous and aggregated form, and no personal data are collected by Blimp’s sensors.
Blimp thus represents a clear example of how Artificial Intelligence can be a strong ally in the fight against the pandemic.