Pandemic has accelerated R&D processes throughout world: NEC CTO

The distant collaboration between researchers necessitated by the pandemic has accelerated the R&D course of internationally, in line with Motoo Nishihara, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, NEC Corporation. NEC, a 120-year-old Japanese conglomerate with footprints internationally, has seen applied sciences like facial recognition and synthetic intelligence evolve to tackle the brand new challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nishihara cited the examples of two merchandise that had been developed rapidly in the course of the lockdown months. One, a video imaging expertise that may take a look at a crowd and alert if the people don’t have the requisite social distance between themselves in locations like airports. Then, the facial recognition expertise wherein NEC is without doubt one of the prime world gamers went to the extent the place it may establish individuals even with their masks on. “We did this in three to four months,” Nishihara stated in a video interview with indianexpress.com.
“Given that 1.1 billion people in the world don’t have any form of identification, multi-modal authentication system using facial and iris recognition could be used to ensure the proper rollout of vaccines and other products,” Nishihara stated, including that NEC doesn’t but have a product that can be utilized in Covid-19 vaccine rollout.Another expertise that might develop into vital in future if NEC’s use of AI for most cancers remedy.
Nishihara examined: “AI is very effective in cancer treatment because we can define the parameters of the customers. I think from now on we have a lot of opportunity for integrating our AI system to the other domains like healthcare.” Interestingly, he stated, the most cancers remedy is predicated on the face recognition expertise which NEC has. “Using face detection technology in the affected area we can effectively detect cancer cells.”

Over the previous few months, researchers concerned with this AI-powered drug for most cancers are actually contributing in direction of the creation of an efficient Covid-19 vaccine. Working with the OncoImmunity AS, a Norway-based bioinformatics firm which NEC acquired in 2019, its AI Drug Development Division accomplished a genetic evaluation of COVID-19 and printed the ends in only a month’s time.
Dr. Akihiko Iketani, Head of NEC Laboratories, defined that their fingerprint identification system is already utilised in African nations to see whether or not a child was already vaccinated, and If sure, then what sort of vaccination was given. “We strongly believe that a similar kind of solution will be required very soon in India as well for Covid-19 and other types of diseases,” Dr Iketani added.

Nishihara agreed that distant working and touchless processes may develop into the brand new regular with the pandemic and the risk that such conditions may recur now with a better frequency. “If we continue this kind of situation, our new society has to have some kind of preparation for the future when remote working and touches systems could become necessary, or even mandatory,” he added.
In India, NEC India’s president and CEO Aalok Kumar chipped in, the corporate is seeing “very strong requirement, both from the government and the enterprise to go more touchless”. NEC is about to start out a pilot challenge at Varanasi airport to permit passengers touchless and paperless entry and has additionally acquired the contract to do the identical within the Pune, Kolkata and Vijayawada.
“If you can apply something like that in a highly sensitive, highly secured and politically sensitive area like aviation, you can imagine how quickly it will get integrated in the enterprise sector,” Kumar added. He stated loads of the resistance that folks used to face in unlocking the funds for digitisation of processes has gone develop into of the pandemic. “That is unlocking a lot of peripheral IT and infrastructure and foundation investment.”