It used to be that people didn’t want to have a scarlet “A” on their clothes, and, soon, Guilford County citizens who wish to enter a county building won’t want to have a scarlet dot on their head that could also cause them to be shunned like Hester Prynne.
Last week, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners got more information on a Dell thermal vision camera system that will surveil people entering county buildings and show staff monitoring the computer images whether a person is running a fever.
At the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Thursday, Aug. 6 meeting, the board approved the new system which will be put in place in a half dozen key county buildings that are used heavily by the public.
A team of county officials recently visited a Novant health facility that uses the system and that helped sell the Board of Commissioners on the wisdom of getting the system for the county.
Guilford County government, like many other local governments across the country, is investing a great deal in technology meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and any other threats that may be seen in future pandemics.
One factor in the board’s decision was the somewhat amazing accuracy of the system. At the meeting, Guilford County Information Technology Director Hemant Desai said the thermo-imaging was extremely reliable.
“The beauty of the system is that it takes less than a second and there is less than .1 degree error,” Desai told the commissioners.
The system will instantly reveal to those monitoring the entrances on computers, phones or tablets, which visitors are running a temperature – one sign that they may have coronavirus.
“It basically places a red mark literally on their head,” Desai told the board.
The system, which includes 21 cameras and smart software to alert staff when someone coming in hot, is costing taxpayers about $420,000.
The county hasn’t yet adopted a policy as to how it will deal with people who are found to have a temperature while attempting to enter a county building.
This Chinese virus will be over one day and preparing for a pandemic like this one was over 100 years ago. I think things will change by then. Just by a bunch of hand head thermometers which will work the same and cost much less. Oh yeah, my bad, forgot y’all think all this money sitting around is for you to spend. How about using this money to help the less fortunate children that have to stay at home for school with computers and fast internet? Isn’t that what you were voted in to do? Help the people? Here is an idea, use a rectal thermometer for those that you think have a fever, bet they stay home then!!
Ummmm…don’t even know where to start. Am I the only one that thinks that this is massive government overreach? Am I the only one that feels like George Orwell’s 1984 is playing out in real life? I advise people to please do their research on the truth behind this so called pandemic and not from the mainstream media-usual suspects. There is so much more going on here behind the scenes and it’s not about a virus. People need to wake up before it’s too late….
If you sacrifice some of your freedom to gain a little safety, you will get neither.
Does anyone understand that your face and eyes can be mapped, and make your presence known anywhere in the world, at any time, by any entity?
BB is moving in, faster and faster.
COOP LEFT out.