Artificial Intelligence Computer Vision for Personal Protective Equipment Compliance

I’m excited to be hosting a webinar on a very timely and important topic - ensuring proper use and compliance of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the workplace, community, schools and other areas. 

We are all keenly aware of the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact it is having not just on the health of Americans and people around the world, but also the impact on the economy in terms of the global shutdown, shelter in place, closed businesses and the overall social and political restrictions we are facing.

What’s clear is that even though this is the new normal, there is still a very strong push to allow businesses, schools, manufacturing plants, pharmaceutical research facilities, and the rest to be opened. And the only way to do this is to ensure that proper PPE compliance is followed so workers and those around them are safe returning to work.

On Wednesday September 30 2020 I’ll be hosting a webinar as part of the Zealtech Webinar Series. Zealtech provides technology services to businesses across industries, including healthcare, education, public sector and others. Services include Cloud solutions, IoT, Big Data and Analytics, Application Testing, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and chatbots, and more.

Our first webinar will cover Artificial Intelligence Based Computer Vision for PPE Violation Detection. My guest speakers will be Karthick Sethunarayanan and Krishna Kannan from Aura Data Technology & Analytics, a Zealtech Federated Partner.

I asked the team to do a short write up introducing Computer Vision technologies to our audience, and tell us a little bit about what to expect on Wednesday’s Webinar!

Computer Vision for PPE Violation Detection

Krishna Kannan, Aura Data Technology & Analytics

Everyday, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) helps prevent countless workplace injuries and illnesses. Employers in the manufacturing, construction, pharmacy, chemical, and other sectors can evaluate their operations to identify risks and develop PPE policies to minimize them. Many companies operating under such sectors require hard hats, goggles, gloves, or more advanced equipment such as respirators and biohazard suits.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is the last line of defense against workplace hazards. If a hazard cannot be eliminated through design, engineering, or administrative controls, appropriate PPE must be used.  

The regulatory bodies of different sectors consider the compliance of PPE as a very important norm, and any identified violations are met with stringent actions.

Not only does PPE policy compliance take time that managers and supervisors need for other tasks, but it is also prone to error. It is impossible to continuously watch each employee in each circumstance that requires PPE. More importantly, meeting PPE policy requirements is not just a matter of compliance, regulations, and company policy. It can be a matter of life and death.

Artificial Intelligence's Emerging Role in Workplace Safety

Many industries require wearing mandatory Protective/Safety Gear. Compliance for wearing these must be constantly monitored to ensure 1) safety and 2) health / hygiene.

In a typical construction site, an industrial shop floor, or a pharmaceutical laboratory, people work in shifts. They need to use PPE for safety and industry requirements.

Around-the-clock safety monitoring throughout the entire site is essential to avoid accidents and violations. The incumbent process involves a combination of direct human supervision, human monitoring of CCTV footage, and alerting when safety protocols are breached or protective gear is removed.

The new-age approach is to implement an AI solution that scans through the CCTV footage in real-time and alerts any safety protocol breach.

Aura Data Technology & Analytics AI Solutions

Aura Data Technologies and Analytics has developed an AI Solution that helps detect any PPE violations on the field. This AI program helps detect any safety hazards with the help of video analytics and creates in-depth dashboard reports. 

Strategically positioned cameras (the type of cameras required are IP cameras which provide more than 30 FPS and HDresolution) capture the video and send frames to the AI Processing Unit. The unit then utilizes Core AI Application to detect human presence. Core AI Application saves the input to a Blob Storage, calls ML API, processes response, and detects if there is a violation from the set PPE protocol. In the event of a violation, it logs it into a SQL database.

Upon a new violation update, a flow triggers and pushes a notification to a PowerApps application. Finally, a Live Power BI Dashboard pulls data from the SQL Database and delivers the data to managers and supervisors.

A New World of Personal Protection

No one has missed how dramatically the world has changed over the past 6 months. What is clear is that this new world is now a part of our reality and here to stay. Technology, albeit less visibly, has also dramatically changed, and is being adapted to use in an ever changing, and often dangerous world.

The technology that we will be demonstrating at the Zealtech Webinar Series highlights the innovative solutions that can be implemented for a Covid-19 world and beyond.

Watch the videos!

AI Based Computer Vision Solutions for Covid-19

Wednesday, September 30, 2020, 11am PST/2pm EST

Register for the Webinar