Viral Cough Cop Device - VCC
 The VCC device with its multi-modal sensing, processing, and communicating module (power supply not included). |  The VCC device is kept on the right hand side and laptop interface is used for visualization of the surveillance result sent from the VCC wirelessly. |
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 User Interface for monitoring report visualization. As the person was speaking only, the report is: No cough detected. |
The VCC is an intelligent device designed to perform First-Level screening of people in crowds, gatherings, public-places and identify potential COVID-19 suspects from their coughs using Audio-Visual (AV) sensing. Cough being the a common symptom in COVID-19 and the most prominent physical mechanism in spreading the virus in public places, VCC's cough based surveillance helps manage crowds and gathering and contain the community spread of coronavirus in different public sectors.
Applications: Quarantine Centers, Office Spaces, Classrooms, Academic Institutes, Factories, Seminar Halls, Community/ Amenity Centers, Hospitals, Clinics, Public Transports.
Timeline: April, 2020 - June, 2021
Collaborator(s): Achal Nilhani
Awards & Honors:
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Patent: An intelligent cough and speech sensing visual monitoring device. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of India, Patent No. 399949
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Chosen among the top 32 Finalists of the Better Health Hackathon co-organized by Microsoft & HCL Technologies. Selected by an International Jury of 41 members and from a pool of 300+ submissions globally.
Media Coverage:
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By India Today
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By Economic Times and many more...
Project Website: HERE
Theory behind Working: Whenever the device is turned on, it starts sensing its environment using multi-modal sensors (acoustic array, visual sensing unit) embedded in it. Simultaneously, a multi-level processing pipeline is carried out that analyses the incoming data. In the first step, VCC's intelligent module if there is any coughing person present within its proximity. For accurate detection, the system relies on both auditory and visual inputs from the sensors. This AV pipeline not only locates the different acoustic events, including coughing person, but precisely separates the audio signals from the different sources. Now, if cough is detected, VCC goes to next step of analysis, i.e., identification of specific disease. If the machine's embedded intelligence identifies the cough to carry features of COVID-19, then the facial identity (extracted from visual sensors) of the suspected person is remotely shared over cloud to the concerned authority so that necessary steps are taken immediately. VCC discriminates coughs from many other respiratory diseases including Asthma, Pneumonia, Pertussis, Bronchitis, etc.