Startups help malls, eateries put safety first on reopening

Shopping in your favourite mall may feel different in the post-covid world. On reaching, you could be asked to scan a QR code on an app, verified through a one-time password, allowing the mall to track your movements. An online tracking system could also inform you to leave a particular store depending on the number of people, thus, maintaining social distancing. The app could also let you pay digitally, ensuring contactless payment.

As malls and restaurants start unlocking amid covid-19, this is just one of the technology-driven solutions designed by startups such as Park+, a smart parking solutions provider.

New Delhi-based Park+ has tied up with malls to help them monitor the entry of customers. The app creates a mall pass on a customer’s phone so that mall security guards can help them check-in and check-out and check and track their body temperature.

Startups have launched a slew of solutions to help public places such as malls open, to ensure hygiene norms, contactless parking and shopping.

Staqu, an artificial intelligence-based startup is leveraging its video analytics platform Jarvis to curb the spread of infection in restaurants, malls and hotels. It already has 15 clients for its software that uses existing closed-circuit television cameras and thermal cameras to determine whether social distancing is being maintained and monitor employee body temperature in real-time.

Staqu has partnered with Dineout to help the restaurant platform’s partner restaurants maintain social distancing norms. Its video analytics platform will be integrated with cameras installed at partner kitchens to check if safety regulations and precautionary measures are being followed by the staff. Real-time analytics will help notify violations, prompting the management to take immediate action by tracking the suspect.

A live stream of the kitchen proceedings will also be available to the end-customer to assure them of the hygiene compliance and sanitization standards, boosting consumer confidence and thereby increasing footfalls.

“Integrating Jarvis in Dineout’s existing framework will help restaurants and food aggregators safely navigate through the crisis and win customers back as business turns a new leaf in the unlock,” said Atul Rai, co-founder and chief executive officer, Staqu.

Rai is also talking to malls and hotels to offer them his covid-19 suite of offerings that includes covid-19 identification, suspect tracing, personal protective equipment monitoring, security, safety, hygiene analytics and people analytics. The artificial intelligence platform will be able to send real-time alerts to check how many people are entering a lift, if they are wearing masks and maintaining proper social distance.

Contactless parking will also be possible through the Park+ app. The user has to enter the vehicle details and will be shown a parking fee that he or she can pay using a digital payment option. Once the payment is made, the information with vehicle details get passed to the PoS device which the guard at the exit gate carries. When the user comes with his car, the guard checks all the information in his PoS and then allows the user to exit the mall. Users can also book the parking in advance at the mall using the Park+ app.

“We are live at Brookefields, Coimbatore, and will be live soon in malls in Delhi, Mumbai and Bhopal,” said Amit Lakhotia, co-founder of Park+.

Another startup, Magneto CleanTech, is working towards air sanitization of central air-conditioning in malls. In addition to sanitizing surfaces, it is critical for spaces such as malls to also sanitize the air inside, as the virus may be airborne and can spread faster in an air-conditioned environment, said founder and CEO Himanshu Agarwal.

The filter-less magnetic air purification and ultraviolet technology based on the ‘Trap & Kill’’ process thoroughly decontaminate the indoor air by killing more than 90% of airborne viruses and infections and can be integrated with any air-conditioning system.