Russian state lifts suspension of troubled track federation

07:33, March 03, 2020

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  Masked faces pose no trouble to AI algos

  People wear masks at Dalian International Airport in Dalian, Northeast Chinas Liaoning province on Jan 22, 2020. (Photo: China Daily)Artificial intelligence-powered technologies are increasingly being used to help contain the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, with several tech companies tweaking their facial recognition algorithms to identify people who are wearing masks.Enterprises that use facial recognition for access control and attendance system needed to make the tweaks as traditional algorithms may not be sufficient for recognition. For, masks used by the employees often cover some features of the face.Beijing-based tech company Hanwang Technology Co Ltd has upgraded its core algorithm and introduced a new facial recognition system for those who wear masks.Huang Lei, vice-president of the company, said Hanwang Tech took just a month to develop the upgraded version. "We have rich experience in overseas markets for more than 10 years. In certain areas such as Africa and the Middle East, we have products that can recognize facial characteristics when the skin color or big beards pose difficulties," he said."We can quickly upgrade the existing products to recognize faces with masks," said Huang, adding that the upgrade often helps in accurate identification.At present, the upgraded system has been deployed in the Birds Nest stadium, Beijing No 3 Intermediate Peoples Court, Beijing Fire Museum and some other companies.According to the government regulations about epidemic prevention and control, those who do not wear masks will be refused entry and alarms will be set off to remind the related authority on duty.Internet, big data, AI and cloud computing should be deployed to prevent and control the epidemic, including the research of gene sequencing of the virus, tracking of patients, population flow and community management, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.Facial recognition has been one of the biggest...

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  Counties in Shanxi lifted out of poverty

  The solar power sector is one of the key industries in Shanxi used for poverty reduction. [Photo by SUN RONGXIANG/FOR CHINA DAILY] Province makes great strides in creating job opportunities and improving social welfare The last 17 counties, including Guangling, Tianzhen, Hunyuan, Ningw

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  Beijing rolls out QR system for coronavirus tracking

  Beijing has rolled out a color-coded QR system to identify residents based on their health conditions, in a bid to facilitate work resumption and peoples movement, said Pan Feng, deputy chief of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, at a press conference on Sunday.File photo: CGTNIn Beijing, people can use a mini-program on Alipay and WeChat to access the QR system. Users can obtain their codes by entering their name and national identity number, and register through facial recognition. A green code means the user is not under quarantine, the yellow code indicates that people must quarantine themselves at home, while the red code means the user must undergo supervised quarantine at designated locations. The status of the color codes is updated daily at midnight.Pan said that, starting from this week, the program will also allow users to check the health codes of others by entering their ID numbers. This is to address the issues of people who do not have smartphones, such as the elderly or children.All the data from the program will be kept by the Beijing municipal government and is only used for epidemic control and prevention, in order to protect citizens individual privacy. Beijing also plans to share the related data with Tianjin and Hebei, in a bid to support cooperation in coronavirus tracking.