The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department on Thursday said a new system equipped with AI functions will boost its efficiency in tackling dripping air conditioners.

It aims to tackle hundreds of blackspots across the city between May and September, including those with more serious dripping problems or those that cause nuisance to people waiting for public transport.

Speaking on an RTHK radio programme, assistant director of operations Wan Chi-shun said as the peak usually occurs at night, 70 percent of the more than 300 officers in charge of dripping air conditioners will be deployed to handle the issue at the time, while the rest will carry out enforcement work in the morning.

He said the third-generation investigation system comes with an infrared night-vision function and can observe dripping issues up to 40 floors high.

"The third-generation is equipped with AI-image recognition technology. It can automatically help staff pinpoint the location and source of the dripping water," he said.

"This allows them to identify the spot sooner. In the past, without this technology, staff had to rely on the naked eye."

Before the system was available, officers handled about 3,000 cases during the whole of 2023, Wan said, and the figure almost tripled to 8,600 cases when the second-generation system was in use last year.

The department expects to handle up to 500 air conditioner dripping blackspots this year, he added.


Edited by Tony Sabine