Vietnamese developer writes software to escape boss' notice

09:04, 08/04/2019

Pham Van Toan, a coder in Hanoi, has created software that allows office workers to  read online newspapers, surf on the internet, order food or do other tasks during working hours. The software uses artificial intelligence(AI) at a basic level.

 

Pham Van Toan, a coder in Hanoi, has created software that allows office workers to  read online newspapers, surf on the internet, order food or do other tasks during working hours. The software uses artificial intelligence(AI) at a basic level.
 

Pham Van Toan, a coder in Hanoi, has created software that allows office workers to  read online newspapers, surf on the internet, order food or do other tasks during working hours. The software uses artificial intelligence(AI) at a basic level.

The smart software detects if the boss is near the cameras and automatically changes the computer’s screen to its usual status.

After analyzing the face of the person coming close to it, it will decide if this is the boss’s face. If so, it will shift to a window of codes, ready for coders to work.

Many technologies and models are used to create smart software. These include Face Recognition, which can answer questions, collect materials and process images. Toan also uses Machine Learning which helps train algorithms.

Asked about the strong points of the software, Toan said it can recognize faces quickly.

“You may think that the software will need several minutes to recognize faces if you watch the sample clip. In reality, the process is shorter. Just within several milliseconds, the screen begins changing,” he said.

However, Toan admitted that there are still some problems.  “Currently, it is based on facial only images,” he said.

Toan said he didn’t intend to create a software piece to escape the boss’ notice, but just  to ‘test his skills’.

“This was just for fun. The boss is not hypercritical and he is friendly. I just did not imagine that the software would be used by colleagues. AI is very interesting. It is not too abstract. Sometimes AI is applied to simple things, but it has a lot of significance,” he said.

Vietnam hopes it would become an AI hub in the world thanks to its qualified labor force. In Vietnam, AI is being used in apps such as face-identification technology cameras, smartphone chatbots, self-propelling vehicles, and nano robots.

Some engineers are developing apps in healthcare, such as big data and AI to make diagnoses and anticipate drug reactions. Some others focus on fintech, such as credit scoring, or finding the credit index of borrowers, and a recommendation system, similar to product advertisements.

Vietnamese farmers have been urged to use AI in hi-tech agriculture production.

More recently, HCM City stated it is planning to use AI to further their scheme to develop a smart city.

(Source: VNN)