Is Face Mask Detection System Becoming a Necessity?
Wearing a mask in public spaces was not an uncommon sight before the outbreak of pandemic as people suffering from cold and sore throat would wear a mask in public to avoid the spread of the infection. But it never became a compulsion until the advisory of WHO break out all around the world about the start of a pandemic.
World Health Organization (WHO) reports suggested two main routes of transmission of the COVID-19 virus and that were respiratory droplets and physical contact. And this led to a mad dash of hoarding supplies to move into isolation and buying face masks at a rapid rate.
After witnessing the havoc pandemic created, governments had to step up to take some necessary precautions like making it compulsory to wear a face mask in public. But who will supervise that those precautions are being followed at such a wide scale?
This turmoil led to the development of various kinds of software and systems that later formed the basis of the Face Mask Detection System.
A face mask detection system can be seen as a computer program that could look at images and detect if people are wearing masks rather than leave members of the public to monitor each other.
To get a better idea of the working and applications of the face mask detection system, let’s take a look to understand this technology a bit more.
Do We Need a Face Mask Detection System?
Since WHO’s advisory was made public, many states around the world have made the wearing of masks in public a mandatory condition due to which, to date, 34 states in the US and the District of Columbia have mask mandates for both public spaces, and indoors. But compliance varies in different countries depending on various factors, ranging from personal politics to a person’s financial ability to purchase masks. And to monitor this compliance to curb the spread of the virus, industries made their contribution by developing face mask detection systems for public offices and places.
Often confused with Facial recognition software, which has much controversy surrounding it with its breach of privacy issue, face mask detection system uses different machine tools to detect the presence of a mask on a person’s face.
Thus, making this system a very useful monitoring tool to be used in offices and public buildings.
How does Face Mask Detection System Work?
According to the latest findings of facial recognition software used in phones and other devices, it mainly features around the eye, nose, mouth, and ears to identify a person whose picture is already recorded, either by the person itself or is stored in a criminal database. But, wearing a mask obstructs this recognition that poses an issue for many systems.
According to the developer’s theory, the face mask detection software, in theory, bypasses privacy issues as the programs don’t focus on actually identifying the people. The software is trained on two sets of images that is, one to teach the algorithm how to identify a face and the second to figure out how to detect a mask on a face.
The machine learning algorithm applied in the face mask detection system doesn’t identify the faces in any way to link a face to a specific person since it doesn’t use a training set with faces that are linked to identities.
One such example can be seen in LeewayHertz’s algorithm which could be used in real-time and can be integrated with CCTV cameras. For a particular frame in a video, it can isolate images and organizes them into two different categories, that is, people who are wearing masks and those who are not.
At present, this system is being used in stealth mode in multiple parts of the US and Europe.
Utilizing Face Mask Detection System
Airports: Face Mask Detection System can be used at airports to identify travelers without masks. Face data of those travelers then can be captured in the system at the entrance and their picture will be sent to the airport authorities so that quick action can be taken.
Hospitals: Hospitals can monitor their patients as well visitors to see if quarantined people required to wear a mask are doing so or not while using this system. The same goes for monitoring staff on duty to prevent any spread of infection.
Sports Venues: With so many fans of sports eager to see live matches, the face mask detection system provides a sense of security while also monitoring the safety of people who are coming to the sports venue.
Retail Locations: Using a face mask detection system is far more convenient for retail store owners to monitor shoppers that are entering the premises, without placing a security team on the door.
Top Players of Face Mask Detection System
LeewayHertz: Formed in 2007, LeewayHertz has a passion for developing and delivering enterprise-grade applications. They have made quite a name in providing custom-based software to their customers and have their hand in a variety of software development streams. Their face mask detection system is quite popular in the US and Europe.
Neuromation: A known vendor in core AI technologies, Neuromation delivers an array of enterprise-grade AI solutions for its global clients including the latest face mask detection system using AI tools.
Sightcorp: Sightcorp excels in making lightweight AI edge software solutions to fill the gap between the online and real-world with its intelligent-based AI specialists. They provide many COVID-19 solutions like occupancy management and entrance flow management tools.
Accubits: Recognized as a global leader in custom software development, AI and Blockchain development, Accubits provide a face mask detection system to monitor people entering offices and public venues wearing a mask using AI tools.
