When someone visits the Rethabile Clinic in Polokwane, once they register as a patient at the facility, they only need to show their face ‒ literally. A computer vision system recognises the person and uses that recognition to assign their spot in queues, bring up medical files for staff, and validate that medicine is dispensed to the right person.

Edge and vision have finally come together. The aforementioned project is a joint pilot between Limpopo’s Department of Health, and Mint, which has honed its computer vision services into a platform offering. It’s one of a large and growing array of use cases. Other examples include access management at a local university, determining the capacity of excavations at mines, and counting bottles on retail shelves.