VIRTUAL BUTTONS AMID PANDEMIC

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People often find themselves hesitating to push an elevator button or select an item in a vending machine in this age of pandemic for fear of contracting the virus. Now virtual buttons that require no face-to-face contact are closer to becoming reality.

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Toothpicks on an elevator wall. They let you push the buttons without touching them with your hand. An elevator of a shopping mall in Thailand. Foot pedals instead of buttons. Just step on it to select your floor. Non-contact technologies infused with cutting-edge science are fast evolving. Simply point at a touch-screen vending machine for the drink of your choice. An AI camera measures the distance between a person’s eyes and the fingertip to calculate which button is pushed.

[Soundbite] KIM DO-HYUN(VTOUCH CO-CEO) : "This technology is capable of accurately understanding a person’s intent using AI. People can make selection on not only the screens, but also other buttons like the ones in elevators."

The technology can be used in so many different ways. The function can be added to elevators or various touch-screen devices currently in use. The virtual touch technology was honored as a CES Innovation Product ahead of the world’s largest IT trade show. It is likely to be commercialized in the first half of 2021. In some countries, biometric technologies that recognize faces or veins are used in no-contact accessing. Engineers developed ways to press holographic buttons or operate an elevator with your smartphone. A fusion of AI, security, robot and smartphone technologies. Technological innovations are made in new areas as cutting-edge science is used to make our lives safer during the pandemic.