Camera technology has developed significantly lately, he adds.

Diary entries written during that time by Lord Vallance, then the UK's chief scientific adviser, revealed officials "always want[ed] to go for stick, not carrot".Lord Vallance has said his diary entries were informal personal reflections and "late night musings", never intended for publication.

He was giving evidence to the sixth part of the Covid inquiry, which is investigating test, trace and quarantine policies.During 90 minutes of questioning, he was shown a series of entries from his evening diaries from the first year of the pandemic.On 12 August 2020, he wrote about a meeting with the prime minister and his senior aides, including then chief adviser Dominic Cummings and cabinet secretary Simon Case.

"Instinct of this crew is to go for more enforcement and punitive measures," he wrote."We suggested more carrot and incentives [were] required to make people take a test, self-isolate etc, but they always want to go for stick not carrot."

Asked who he was referring to in that entry, Lord Vallance said it would have been the "decision-makers for policy".

In another entry, on 25 September 2020, as Covid cases were rising once again, he quoted Boris Johnson as saying: "We need a lot more punishments and a lot more closing down".But nearly a quarter of respondents said their employers currently were not providing enough support.

Prof Nakata said the technology "could be a transformative change in organisations across the UK".He said AI could "simplify complex tasks, take away the boring jobs, and enable workers to have more time to focus on the things that really matter".

"But that's just the tip of the iceberg; it could prove to be a solution that not only helps businesses thrive but improves work satisfaction for employees," he added.Robots for training carers, sensors that monitor people as they sleep and an app that can detect if someone is in pain - could this be the future of care?