Covid-19 protocol such as ‘minimum contact’ has further expedited digital initiatives to be in contact with all the stakeholders of infrastructure projects. What are the digital initiatives you have taken in this regard?
Honeywell has introduced its Healthy Buildings solutions to help make safer and healthier buildings and facilities. Honeywell Healthy Buildings solutions integrate air quality, safety and security technologies along with advanced analytics to improve indoor air quality while meeting energy efficiency goals. Many workplaces, shop floors, project sites and buildings use access control systems to prevent unauthorized entry. Typically, this entails physical interventions - touching an access card on a card reader, opening a door by touching the handle, pushing a button to exit, or pressing a button to call the lift car and select the desired floor. Honeywell integrates technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Bluetooth and Passive Infrared sensors (PIR) to create frictionless access control systems. This technology eliminates the need for physical verification, enabling facility owners and managers to allow for more secure, controlled entry with remote or contactless biometric acquisition. It requires minimal visible infrastructure yet permits access with limited inconvenience to occupants.
Face recognition, biometric and Bluetooth readers, PIR motion sensors reduce physical contact with frequently touched surfaces. These technologies help minimize the risk of exposure to contagions, improve the occupant experience, and maintain a high level of security in the workplace. Today’s security market demands highly sophisticated technologies, and Honeywell’s innovative analytics solutions deliver the required functionality to solve customer problems. Honeywell’s analytic capabilities can increase security, reduce shrinkage, enhance customer service, and increase operational efficiencies. Honeywell video analytics automatically detects, analyzes, tracks and classifies the behavior of people and vehicles as they move through a scene. Honeywell’s surveillance cameras provide exceptional image clarity, while our video systems allow easy migration from analogue to IP-based technology.
The pandemic has further expedited technological advancement such as minimum human intervention by integrating technologies such as IoT, AI. Towards this, what are the R&Ds going on at your end?
Before the pandemic, building technologies were largely focused on driving efficiencies such as predictive maintenance for operations or energy savings for reducing costs and meeting sustainable goals. While these aspects are still important, the new definition of a “smart building” includes safer indoor environments with improved indoor air quality, frictionless access for reduced exposure to contaminants, and advanced video analytics to track compliance to Covid-appropriate behaviors by occupants, as well as to provide real-time data for better decision making by facility managers. Solutions that use a combination of IoT and AI technologies will help define the future of smart buildings, with IoT devices collecting data which will then be analyzed by AI to learn patterns and generate insights.
The ongoing Pandemic has badly battered the economy. Does infrastructure hold the key to revive the Indian economy? Your views
Infrastructure and agriculture are the growth engines of many economies. Government investment in large infrastructure projects in urban transport, railways, and metros, as well as investments in health infrastructure can go a long way in creating jobs, supporting manufacturing and ancillary industries, and improving the quality of life for the citizens.
What are your views on the need to adapt and remould the infra activities as per the New Normal to spur the economy as well as the Healthcare sector?
To revive the economy, it is imperative to introduce confidence-building measures to get people back to work, revive businesses, and restore normality. Therefore, adapting to the new normal requires investments in technologies that help enable safer environments – be it the workplace, commercial and retail establishments, or public spaces. Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, Honeywell’s efforts have been focused on developing and bringing to market technologies that will enable these efforts. The pandemic has also highlighted the need to invest in the healthcare sector. As a part of our Healthy Buildings offerings, an air and surface purification device that uses UV-C technology to disinfect air in highly vulnerable areas in buildings. The solution, developed in India for the India market, deactivates up to 99%* airborne pathogens, reduces cross infections and improves indoor air quality using precise UV-C wavelengths. It is ideal for hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities, where large numbers of people are in close proximity, with a possibility of disease transmission through airborne pathogens. The device uses high intensity UV-C light, a special reflector, and a unique louver to disinfect the air, which is then circulated by convective air currents. This is an easy-to-install, low-maintenance device that provides continuous sanitization, eliminating the need for regular and manual disinfection with chemicals. It can be used in spaces with limited mechanical ventilation and is safe for air conditioned and non-air-conditioned environments.
*Tested in an MOF recognized and ISO certified lab.
