App uses facial recognition to help enforce mask-wearing policy at Washington schools
Making sure people wear masks at schools is a challenge during the coronavirus pandemic, but a new app from a Seattle-based company is helping, The Seattle Times reported.
Tested at Washington schools
RealNetworks announced its app MaskCheck on Dec. 15 in a news release. Before that, The Bush School in Seattle tested it out on people walking through its doors, the release said.
Tablets were placed at the school’s entrances with the app after the school “started allowing K-5 students on campus at the start of the school year,” according to the Times. While staff and students didn’t have a problem with wearing the masks, some “vendors and delivery people … needed to be reminded,” the news outlet reported.
“Whether checking-in visitors, reminding faculty and staff at building entry points, or determining mask compliance in crowded hallways, we now have an easy-to-use system in place,” Michael Miller, facilities manager at the school, said in a statement in the news release. “These provide us with the data that confirms face coverings are being worn and, most importantly, worn properly.”
The app is also being used at the Seattle School for Boys, the release said.
“State health and transportation agencies in Washington, New York and [D.C.] and the Texas Medical Center hospitals have all expressed interest in deployment,” according to the release.
How it works
The app is free to download on iOS and Android devices, the release said.
The demo mode shows how the app scans the user’s face and determines whether the person is wearing a mask. If they are, it will tell the user if they’re wearing it correctly.
The way it indicates the status of the user’s mask is audible - if the user is not wearing a mask, it will say, “please put on a mask.” If the user is wearing the mask incorrectly, such as below the nose, it will ask them to “please adjust your mask.”
Once the user is correctly wearing a mask, it will tell them they are “good to go.”
The app uses RealNetworks’ facial recognition software SAFR, according to the release. MaskCheck-enabled devices enter anonymous data on a user’s mask-use into a “public health data repository” that identifies the user’s “geographic location” and “classification of location,” the release said.
“RealNetworks developed MaskCheck to help public officials, as well as private business, gather and act on real-time, accurate behavioral face mask compliance data,” the company’s release said. “The frequently updated mask compliance data feed can be used by any and all concerned parties under a free creative commons license … This dynamic dataset is also visually represented via live dashboards in our MaskCheck Map.”
Why wear a mask?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says masks help protect others as well as the wearer.
“Masks are a simple barrier to help prevent your respiratory droplets from reaching others,” according to the CDC. “Studies show that masks reduce the spray of droplets when worn over the nose and mouth … A cloth mask also offers some protection for you too.”
COVID-19 is primarily spread through “respiratory droplets carrying infectious virus. Respiratory droplets are produced during exhalation (e.g., breathing, speaking, singing, coughing, sneezing),” the CDC says.
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 2:10 PM with the headline "App uses facial recognition to help enforce mask-wearing policy at Washington schools."