Guardhat adds software for temperature monitoring, contact tracing

DETROIT—Officials at the Detroit-based workplace safety equipment developer Guardhat announced a partnership with the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based facial recognition security software firm Oloid.

Guardhat officials said the partnership will empower organizations to operate under the recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for social distancing and elevated body temperature scanning by integrating a platform for workplace contact tracing with an organization’s existing systems and hardware.

“By combining both the Guardhat and Oloid technologies, we are able to provide an extremely streamlined solution for organizations to safely and effectively bring their employees back to work,” said Kaushik Sarkar, head of global sales at Guardhat. “This solution allows organizations to easily implement precautionary guidelines set by government entities such as the CDC and OSHA.”

To minimize the number of physical touchpoints and high-touch surfaces, the combined system will enable organizations to test temperatures and contact trace employees at a particular site. This will allow an organization to quickly identify employees who may need to be isolated, while simultaneously determining who they may have had close interactions with—ultimately  allowing an organization to take preventative measures to reduce the spread of any infectious diseases, including COVID-19.

How it works:

• Oloid’s FaceVault technology provides a suite of tools that can be used to identify and authorize employee access within secure workspaces. Particularly, its AI-enabled contactless biometric authentication provides the means for touchless entry/exit points (doors, turnstiles, etc.) and time clocks, some of the most common touch points within an organization. In addition, Oloid provides touchless temperature scans to detect elevated body temperatures which may indicate that an employee needs further evaluation before returning to work. By using its FaceVault facial authentication technology, the platform is able to integrate with IP cameras to ensure that an employee is wearing a mask or face covering before entering a targeted area.
• Guardhat will be able to provide information specific to employee contact both before and after symptoms have been reported. By utilizing its tracing and location monitoring solution, organizations will be able to instantly inform employees when they are within social distancing guidelines as provided by the CDC. In addition, employers will be able to leverage the technology to create modified arrangements of dynamic workplace environments – including common areas and manufacturing sites.

Because contact tracing and temperature screening is an integral component of maintaining a COVID-19 ready workplace, the Guardhat’s IoT and Oloid’s AI technology is imperative to the success of quickly identifying and containing any potential outbreaks at the work site.  The combined solution offers a sophisticated privacy and data security infrastructure to ensure the encryption and protection of end-user identity and personally identifiable information.

“Many companies in essential industries are evaluating how to keep their workforce safe by leveraging the latest technologies, without compromising on privacy,” said Madhu Madhusudhanan, CTO of Oloid. “It is our privilege to serve the deskless workforce by introducing our privacy-forward technology that can help them get back to work with one less thing to worry about.”

Both systems can easily integrate with standard tablets, cameras, IT and HR systems, ensuring no disruptions in security and a quick and streamlined process for product integration.

For more information, visit guardhat.com

Guardhat was founded in 2014 by former steel and mining CEO Saikat Dey, and offers a smart hard hat that and related software that monitors the location, health, and work environment of the person wearing it. The software platform collects and analyzes on-the-job data which is used to enhance industrial worker safety and productivity programs. More at www.guardhat.com.

Oloid—named after a unique, curved, three-dimensional shape created by a mathematician in 1929—is the developer of a contactless biometrics authentication platform called FaceVault. Oloid also offers AI-based touchless temperature scanning systems for detecting elevated body temperature using thermal cameras. When combined with Oloid’s mask detection and QR-code based symptom questionnaire technology, Oloid serves as a comprehensive solution for contagion risk prevention and mitigation at the points of entry. More at www.oloid.ai.