CamCom bags three-year deal from Saudi Arabia govt to detect visual pollutants

Indian AI startup CamCom has bagged a three-year contract from the Saudi Arabia government to detect and classify distinct visual pollutants in real-time based on inputs from any source, the company said on Thursday.

Without disclosing the deal size, CamCom said that it has signed a pact with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing (MoMRAH) for auto-detection and assessment of visual pollutants as part of the Quality of Life (QoL) project under the Saudi Vision 2030 framework.

Saudi Arabia's head of compliance and city operators sector Ali Rajhi said that MoMRAH delivers over 40 per cent of all resident-related services across cities and municipalities in the Kingdom.

''Visual appeal of cities by eliminating visual pollution is a high priority area for the Kingdom. Our collaboration with CamCom in bringing computer vision as a bleeding-edge enabler has resulted in highly encouraging results in pilot tests. We are proud and excited to formalize our partnership with CamCom,'' Rajhi said.

The QoL project is partially contingent on the usage of advanced AI technologies to improve the quality of life of its residents by establishing a more comfortable environment for their contemporary lifestyles. Visual pollution is the deterioration or disruption of natural and man-made landscapes that ruin the aesthetic appeal of an area. It also refers to physical elements that limit the movability of people on public roads, such as excavation barriers, potholes, and dilapidated sidewalks.

''This is the global first association by a nation to tackle visual pollution using AI, which leads the way to achieving the United Nations (UN) Sustainability Development Goal (SDG) 11 -- Sustainable Cities and Communities,'' the statement said.

CamCom said that its AI platform enables detection and classification of construction waste, non-construction waste, manhole issues, road cave-ins etc. among other relevant visual pollutants to achieve the UN targets.

''This is momentous at multiple levels for CamCom. The world's first instance of AI being used to meet an UN SDG, the first time it is being rolled out across a country, and most importantly, the use of a startup by a sovereign nation for such a prestigious project. This multi-year engagement will cement the position of CamCom as the preferred ''vision'' platform of the world,'' CamCom co-founder and CEO Ajith Nayar said.