The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing (MoMRAH) partners with CamCom, an Indian startup for a global first program to tackle visual pollution using Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The association initiated by management consultancy firm Kearney will utilize CamCom’s AI platform to detect and classify distinct visual pollutants in real-time on visual inputs from any source in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) via the Ministry of Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing (MoMRAH) signed an agreement with Indian Artificial Intelligence (AI) Startup CamCom for auto-detection and assessment of visual pollutants as part of the Quality of Life (QoL) project under the Saudi Vision 2030 framework. 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 (VP) 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) goal 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities. The project works towards achieving sub goals –11.3 (enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanisation and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries), 11.4 (Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage), and 11.6 (reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management). CamCom’s 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.
MoMRAH’s implementation of the CamCom AI platform will leverage computer vision technology to process the images uploaded by the citizens through mobile device cameras to auto-detect and classify the visual pollutants present in the images. This will automate many parts of the workflow, thereby increasing efficiency, helping in democratising the services provided to the citizens and maintaining cleanliness in the country of KSA. The AI approach plays an important role in supporting the MoMRAH’s objective to improve prediction performance in real-time.
Talking about the historic association, Ali Rajhi, Head of Compliance and City Operators Sector, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia said “MOMRAH delivers over 40% of all resident-related services across cities and municipalities in the Kingdom. This puts us in a unique position of responsibility to deliver a high quality of life for our people. We have the highest ambitions to make our cities amongst the most sustainably liveable, secure and coveted communities in the world. Visual appeal of cities by eliminating visual pollution is a high priority area for the Kingdom. MOMRAH is at the forefront of bringing advanced technologies and AI to optimize our operations and enable our teams proactively address and fix issues on the ground. We are also excited to partner with the private sector, especially with the SME and startup community to bring agile solutions and speed to action. 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, and work with their bright and committed team. We look forward to working with CamCom to eliminate visual pollution, and extend the application of AI and computer vision to other relevant, high-priority topics.”.
Ajith Nayar, Co-founder & CEO of CamCom said, “Rarely does an established company let alone a startup become part of history. 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. We are extremely thankful to MoMRAH under the guidance of Engr. Ali Rajhi, a visionary if ever there was one. This multi-year engagement will cement the position of CamCom as the preferred “vision” platform of the world. We look forward to engaging with various other ministries and private sector leaders in the kingdom.
Susheel Sethumadhavan, Kearney Partner in MEA and lead of Kearney’s analytics and AI practice said “The partnership between MOMRAH and CamCom is an exciting step in a journey of digital and technology revolution in the Kingdom. MOMRAH has been at the forefront of experimenting cutting-edge technologies to deliver high quality services to Saudi residents. We see the partnership between MOMRAH and CamCom as a natural alliance. CamCom’s computer vision AI platform has proven to deliver MOMRAH’s ambitions to provide Saudi residents with the highest quality of life, through sustainable, secure and visually appealing communities. Kearney is proud to introduce a burgeoning startup ecosystem to MOMRAH and the Kingdom. We look forward to this partnership being a poster child for public sector and startup collaboration, to improve the quality of life of Saudi residents.
About MoMRAH: Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing (MoMRAH) is a government agency in Saudi Arabia established in 1975 and responsible for the supervision and regulation of municipalities in the Kingdom. The ministry supervises the administration of municipalities across the country, including cities, towns, and villages. It provides maintenance and development services for all municipalities. The ministry is also responsible for providing basic infrastructure and road development in the country.
About CamCom: CamCom is an award-winning, sector agnostic, AI-powered Computer Vision platform. They are pioneers in leveraging CV and associated technologies in the visual inspection process. The solutions are deployed through bespoke Rigs, mobile devices or UAVs depending on the customer’s requirements for precision and speed. CamCom Vision Lab is a premier applied technology research lab (in India and MEA), that is scaling new heights. The Lab has made significant breakthroughs in computer vision and machine learning. CamCom’s current operations are in India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US. They are headquartered in Bangalore, INDIA and have an office in Dubai, UAE.
Kearney is a leading global management consulting firm. For nearly 100 years, Kearney has been a trusted advisor to C-suites, government bodies, and non-profit organizations. Driven to be the difference between a big idea and making it happen, Kearney helps its clients break through. Global Management Consulting Firm – Middle East – Kearney.
