The city of Cannes takes the Covid-19 epidemic to heart and wants to prepare for deconfinement in the best possible conditions. To do this, the city called on a start-up to deploy a surveillance camera system. The goal? Identify people not wearing a protective mask.
As everyone knows, deconfinement is scheduled to begin on May 11, 2020. After this date, wearing a protective mask will become mandatory when it becomes a question of taking public transport, they will also be strongly recommended in the shops. In order to prepare for this situation, the city of Cannes has taken the lead, as indicated in an official press release (PDF in French / 2 pages) published on April 26, 2020.
For about two weeks, the three outdoor markets of the city of Cannes – Forville, Gambetta and La Bocca – have been under increased surveillance. A system of cameras makes it possible to identify people who are not wearing masks. For Cannes Mayor David Lisnard, the results are encouraging. This Sunday, April 26, 74% of people who frequented these markets wore a mask.
For the mayor, it's about successfully deconfinement and resume activities gradually and safely. The elected official also decided to apply this measure in public transport. A city bus has actually been equipped with the same camera device.
You should know that the city of Cannes has hired the services of Datakalab, a start-up based in Paris. This expert in computer vision indicated that her technology is based on an algorithm . This is able to detect people wearing or not wearing a mask in public spaces. This is done using small cameras and mini computers processing the images locally.
City security employees receive an alert (SMS or email), allowing them to have a real-time overview of the port's progress of the mask during the day. Managers also have access to a sort of electronic dashboard.
In the press release, Datakalab explains that it has conducted an impact study in order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In addition, this company rejects the idea that its technology can be associated with facial recognition . It is true that the difference is significant, insofar as the device in question is not intended to directly identify people.
According to the start-up and the town hall of Cannes no image is stored , so that the deployment of the device did not need to be declared to the prefecture. Finally, Datakalab indicated that the adoption of the system by the city of Cannes was only the beginning. Indeed, the Île-de-France region would also be very interested.
