IIT Mandi develops AI-driven app for Covid positive persons

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi have developed a mobile application to monitor Covid-19 persons and accurately detect people under home quarantine. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven Home Quarantine Management Application (HQMA) named LakshmanRekha uses a combination of biometric verification, geofencing and AI.

According to the findings published in the IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine, the app confirms if the instantaneous position matches with the given geofenced area. Researchers claim that because of this feature, unlike other monitoring mobile applications, LakshmanRekha cannot be fooled by leaving the device in isolation zones or by uploading any photo containing the registered face.

The app is also equipped to monitor whether the quarantined person is using the device or another. The research team underlined that if the application comes across any action pointing to a user identity change, it will directly notify the concerned authority.

Aditya Nigam, Associate Professor, School of Computing & Electrical Engineering, IIT Mandi, commented, "We have developed a pilot version of LakshmanRekha mobile application and tested it over small datasets. The obtained results are very good, and now we are working on adding more functionality, scalability and usability to make it ready for deployment." Other than quarantine management, the app could be useful in curfew situations, or any national emergency, for identifying violators and lawbreakers.