By Minwoo Park
SEOUL (Reuters) – Designed to combat the summer heat, monsoon rains and coronavirus, the bus stop has reached the streets of south Korea’s capital.
Smart Shelter glass dice feature air conditioning and UV sterilizers to leave blank and cool air, surveillance cameras and virtual displays to warn when you come on your bus. Supplied with a hand sanitizer and can rate a computer or cell phone while losing the Wi-Fi connection.
“I felt uncomfortable at first because I had to take my temperature before I went in, but it didn’t take that long,” said Park Sung-yeon, a 25-year-old college student. “I hope we can have more to beat the coronavirus.”
A thermal imaging camera on the doors only allows access to others whose temperature is below 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5 degrees Fahrenheit). A separate camera is installed at a reduced height for children.
A solar panel on the roof provides backup power.
But it comes with a maximum value of $84,000 (100 million won) for shelter.
“We are also sharing real-time stage updates with the police and smart video surveillance of the fireplace station, an alert bell and an AI noise sensor, so we can respond promptly to an emergency,” said Kim Hwan-gyun, Seongdong Shelter District Manager.
Ten of those bus stops have been installed in Seongdong District, east of Seoul, known for state-of-the-art utilities such as traffic lighting devices at pedestrian crossings, and others are planned.
High-tech innovation, an original concept of the local district workplace that collaborated with LG Electronics, presented earlier this month.
Although South Korea has implemented large-scale testing and tracking to involve the first wave of coronavirus, Asia’s fourth-largest economy has experienced persistent epidemics in recent weeks, mainly in the densely populated capital region.
(Report by Minwoo Park; written through Karishma Singh; edited through Clarence Fernandez and Janet Lawrence)