智能傳感器讓辦公室社交隔離更容易

If businesses are to get reluctant workers back into the office, finding ways to maintain social distancing will be key. An Israeli company thinks it can help, using smart sensors mounted on workplace ceilings.

疫情之下，如果企業想把不情願復工的員工拉回辦公室，找到保持社交距離的方法很關鍵。一家以色列公司認爲在辦公室天花板上安裝智能傳感器將有助於保持社交距離。

PointGrab developed its technology before the pandemic to help workspace managers optimize how employees use office space. About the size of a smoke alarm, the sensors can record the exact number and location of people in buildings including offices, hotels and restaurants.

PointGrab公司在疫情前就研發出了這一技術，幫助職場的管理者們優化員工使用辦公空間的方式。這種傳感器和煙霧警報器差不多大，可以記錄辦公大樓、酒店和餐廳等建築物內人員的精確數量和位置。

One of the company's first clients was Deloitte, which installed the system at its flagship London office last year. PointGrab's sensors were connected to screens in the building to show the availability of desks and shared areas in real time. PointGrab CEO Doron Shachar says it was one of a range of innovations that helped Deloitte fit 30% more people into 3% less space.

德勤會計師事務所是這家公司最早的客戶之一，德勤去年在倫敦總部辦公室安裝了這一系統。PointGrab的傳感器和建築物內的屏幕相連，實時顯示可供使用的辦公桌數量和共享空間。PointGrab公司的首席執行官多倫·沙哈爾說，這是該公司的一系列創新項目之一，幫助德勤公司在比原來小3%的空間內安置了比原來多30%的人員。

Now PointGrab has adapted the technology so the sensors can also monitor social distancing by keeping track of how far apart people are, and whether they're traveling in one direction around a building.

如今，PointGrab公司將這一技術調整後應用到社交隔離上，通過讓傳感器追蹤記錄人與人之間的距離來監控社交隔離的情況，以及人們是否向大樓的同一個方向移動。

Workspace managers can set up alerts for when two people are closer than two meters for more than 30 seconds, for example.

舉例來說，職場管理者可以設置警報，當兩個人的間距小於兩米，並保持這樣的間距超過30秒時，警報就會響起。

The sensors have been included in the "six feet office" concept created by real estate services company Cushman and Wakefield to encourage employees to practice social distancing. They are currently being used in this way at a university in the Netherlands, and at an innovation hub in Belgium.

這種傳感器被運用在房地產顧問公司戴德樑行的“六英尺辦公室”概念中，以鼓勵員工踐行社交隔離。目前荷蘭的一所大學和比利時的一個創新中心正在使用這種傳感器來實行社交隔離。

While the social distancing innovation is new, PointGrab has deployed more than 10,000 sensors for workspace optimization, including in the offices of Coca-Cola, Facebook and Dell.

儘管這一社交隔離創新項目剛出不久，PointGrab已經在可口可樂、臉書和戴爾等公司的辦公室安裝了超1萬臺傳感器來優化辦公空間利用率。

Workers might not like the idea of being monitored, but PointGrab says no images or identifying features are recorded. Instead, each employee is represented as an anonymous dot on a dashboard.

員工也許不喜歡被監視，不過PointGrab表示，傳感器不會記錄任何影像或可識別的特徵。事實上，每個員工在監控儀表盤上都顯示爲一個無名的小點。

"The sensor does not violate people's privacy," Shachar says. "This is extremely important in the workspace."

沙哈爾說：“傳感器不會侵犯人們的隱私，這一點在職場極爲重要。”