April 2020 Summaries

Voxel51, an AI startup based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has developed an interactive tool called the Physical Distancing Index (PDI) to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on social behavior worldwide by analyzing video streams from public street cameras. This AI-powered tool, launched as a free service, allows users to track changes in human activity in real time across major cities like London, New York City, and Dublin, using advanced computer vision and deep learning models to detect and quantify pedestrian and vehicle presence. The PDI, updated every 15 minutes, provides day-by-day timelines of social activity, enabling municipalities and the public to understand changes in social behaviors due to the pandemic, without extracting personal data or relying on mobile phone signals. The initiative, led by Voxel51 co-founders Dr. Jason Corso and Dr. Brian Moore, aims to offer a tool for public awareness by correlating public activity with COVID-19 news and physical distancing mandates.