Lasers and artificial intelligence from Somerset could help us maintain social distancing

A company based in Frome is championing an artificial intelligence (AI) system that it claims could be key in helping enforce social distancing or stopping terrorist activities. 

Level Five Supplies, which has been based in Frome over the last 18 months, has been pitching SENSR software across the world, which could be used very easily to monitor social distancing in busy city centres or streets and help police and other law enforcement identify problems. 

It uses non-harmful infrared lasers to register the presence of objects such as pedestrians and track where they go and patterns of behaviour. The SENSR system uses LiDAR (light detection and ranging) systems, which have been used as far back as the moon landings of the 1960s.

Level Five CEO Alex Lawrence-Berkeley says this has a wide range of potential uses and said it worked a little like “training a dog”.

He said: “It works like your eyes but better. In the same way animals can see and absorb more information than us, so can LiDAR. It works by using infrared lasers and emits them all around the area it is situated in.

“What it can do is to send a small piece of encoded energy via an infrared light into the surrounding area, and when that energy bounces back off an object, because it’s specifically encoded it tells you where it’s come from and how long it was travelling before it bounced back. This means you can identify where an object is and its position.

Read more: Lasers and artificial intelligence from Somerset could help us maintain social distancing