With the increasing number of COVID-19 cases soaring up to as high as 18 million, the entire world is facing a challenge in managing the deadly pandemic situation. Initially, COVID-19 detection proved to be a challenging aspect as it was difficult to detect and diagnose COVID patients. However, the usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made it easier for Healthline staff and the government to cope up with this challenge of detecting the patents who are COVID positive. Artificial Intelligence utilizes the technologies of efficient algorithms that then process data to recognize trends. Therefore, for any Artificial Intelligence to be effective, big data is required.
Chest X-rays: Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is costly and needs a lot of time to generate results. Hence, Chest X-rays have gained importance over time are being used as a routine method for the treatment of COVID-19. However, a clear chest X-ray cannot differentiate between the illness and the degree of infection impacting the lungs.
Artificial Intelligence Application: Artificial Intelligence, in combination with Chest X-rays, aims to detect people with maximum symptoms and chances of having the disease, thus diagnosing ground-glass opacities in the lungs, a classic and clear symptom of COVID-19 illness. Many firms, such as Qure.ai, a start-up located in Mumbai and Tata, have used AI in chest X-rays to treat COVID-19. The AI developed by Qure.ai also helps to determine the level of infection impacting the lungs. This is typical of benefit to patients who live in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Contact- based app to detect COVID: In April, Apple and Google, the two major tech companies, collaborated to create a contact-based technology to monitor COVID-19 patients. The software runs on Bluetooth and has mainly been seen in western countries. In India, the government has ruled out a similar approach by designing the Aarogya Setu device.
In June, India told the UN that drones and touch monitoring devices have helped India handle COVID incidents. The software utilizes Bluetooth and positioning data to notify the user of any potential COVID-19 patients in the area. The app is published in 12 languages and has a customer community of more than 10 million users. Many smartphone apps such as “GoCoronaGo” and “Sampark-o-meter” have also been developed for contact tracing by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and IIT.
Drones to detect COVID law violators: In Odisha, the State Health Department cooperated with the IT industry to build drones that have been seen to be effective in monitoring infringements of the laws in containment areas. Other than the Aarogya Setu device, other states have used AI to recognize citizens who are mask violators with the aid of AI cameras.
In Telangana, owing to an increase in COVID incidents, the police department has come up with the deployment of a technical device in the CCTV cameras to recognize mask violators. Once it has been detected, it sends a report to the police department, and in effect provides an alert to the traffic police unit. This technology is identical to the AI platform established by China to detect mask violators. This form of AI technology was initially deployed in Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and Rachakonda.
AI to assist in making drugs: Throughout this tough time, AI allowed the manual repurposing of drugs to manage COVID-19. Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) has developed an AI platform that can repurpose the drugs with the greatest likelihood of effectiveness against the illness, instead of going through the whole cycle manually. Hence, it effectively reduces the work at hand.
Tata Consultancy Services also utilizes AI technologies to break down the large molecule of medicines into highly efficient disease-proof molecules, thereby effectively reducing the time consumed for getting the ultimate result.
AI to assist in treatment: Additionally, AI has proved to be successful in offering telemedicine and teleconsultation online consultation with health professionals on a particular disease. In several nations, such as Chhattisgarh, AI has proved to be a success in the online training of physicians to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic. In Kerala, robots are used to distribute hand sanitizers and to distribute public safety messages at the entrance of office buildings and in isolated wards, to counter COVID-19.
Most start-ups are already using AI to come up with strategies toward the spread of COVID-19. This article provides information on various sectors that are effectively using AI to fight coronavirus and its spread. Technology has become an effective and essential aid to help and assist human beings in the battle against this pandemic. They can reach out to all those areas and people, where humans themselves cannot go.
