Technology to assist assess cleanliness of hospital staff
Scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) system that can track medical staff through cameras and detect whether they maintain proper hand hygiene, as that could reduce the risk of hospital-acquired infections.
The mechanism devised by researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is based on a combination of depth cameras and computer-vision algorithms. People were tracked around two hospital wards and automatically identified when they used gel dispensers.
Images from cameras installed overlooking corridors and rooms, among other places were collected by the researchers in the study.
The team then used 80% of the images to train their algorithms to track staff, and monitor their hand hygiene behaviour.
There was an accuracy of 75% in concluding if people had used the dispensers.
Other than its use in hospitals, this mechanism of utilizing knowledge of Artificial Intelligence can be useful in every industry where food products are handled for public consumption.
