Amazon.com Inc purchased cameras to measure the temperature of workers during the coronavirus pandemic. The supplier of these cameras is the Chinese multinational company, Dahua Technology.
In a reuters story, the Chinese company sent 1,500 cameras to Amazon in April in a deal valued at about $10 million. At least 500 Dahua systems are for Amazon use in the United States.
The deal comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned of a shortage of temperature-reading devices and said it would not stop certain pandemic uses of thermal cameras that lack regulatory approval from the agency. U.S.-based manufacturer FLIR Systems Inc said it has faced a backlog of orders of up to weeks, forcing it to prioritize products for hospitals and other critical facilities.
Amazon declined to confirm its purchase from Dahua, but said its hardware complied with national, state and local laws, and that its temperature controls were to "support the health and safety of our employees, who continue to provide critical service in our communities."
The company added that it was deploying thermal imaging cameras from "multiple" manufacturers, which it declined to name. These suppliers include Infrared Cameras Inc, which Reuters previously reported, and FLIR, according to employees at Amazon-owned Whole Foods, who saw the deployment. FLIR declined to comment on its customers.
Source: Reuters.
Image: Amazon - Facebook.
