Hong Kong adopts AI to catch housing tenants throwing objects off buildings
Housing minister gives assessment of smart technology’s implementation at 10 public rental housing estates as part of trial run
Hong Kong authorities have incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) into their surveillance systems to help catch public housing tenants who throw objects off buildings, as part of the city’s smart estate management initiatives.
Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin shared details on Thursday about the implementation of the AI software at 10 public housing estate as part of a trial run announced last year.
The minister said authorities normally had to spend hours manually reviewing CCTV footage to identify objects that had been thrown from buildings.
But the AI software could make the process easier as it automatically identified abnormal movements and tracked the trajectories of such objects.
“My colleagues shared that digital technologies have greatly improved their work efficiency, enabling them to identify offending households, issue warning letters and deduct seven points from them,” Ho wrote in a social media post.
The Marking Scheme for Estate Management Enforcement in Public Housing Estates, introduced in 2003, penalises residents who break estate rules under a points system.