A system utilizing artificial intelligence, machine learning and computer vision can identify whether people are wearing masks, which could help ensure that everyone entering a Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) station is wearing a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A team from National Chiao Tung University that developed the system on Monday said that preliminary tests carried out at campus cafeteria and classrooms showed 95 percent accuracy.
The team was led by Cheng Wen-huang (鄭文皇) and Shuai Hong-han (帥宏翰), a professor and assistant professor in the electrical engineering department.
Photo copied by Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
For the tests, those wearing masks were marked with a green square and those without were marked with a red square, it said.
Key characteristics of facial features are targeted, allowing the system to identify individuals even without a full facial capture, including if their head was down as they used a cellphone or if their face was covered by an arm as they slept at a desk, the team said.
This approach is innovative, as previous programs were “taught” to identify individuals by being fed large portrait photographs, which raised the risk of misjudgements if facial features are obstructed, if the size of the face is too small or the angle is wrong, Shuai said.
In such circumstances, individuals would have to stand in front of a camera for a system to be able to recognize them, Shuai said.
The system could help monitor whether people are wearing masks on MRT trains or other forms of public transportation, as the government does not have enough people to monitor enforcement of the mask policy, the team said.
Using the system would not cause a back-up at entrances to MRT stations, as it retains high identification rates even with dense crowds, with results in under 0.03 seconds, the team said.
Meanwhile, National Cheng Kung University Hospital on Monday unveiled a lightweight protective tent designed to prevent the risk of infection when medical personnel are treating a COVID-19 patient.
Fang Pin-hui (方品惠), a physician with the Tainan-based hospital’s emergency medicine department who helped develop the tent, said doctors must be protected, especially when trying to intubate COVID-19 patients experiencing respiratory failure, which can expose them to aerosol-based transmission of the virus, especially if they are not wearing protective gear.
The tent-like device was inspired by an umbrella and a raincoat and consists of two L-shaped frames and a transparent PVC film, materials which are easy to find and relatively inexpensive, Fang said.
It can be placed on a bed or stretcher and acts as a barrier between a physician and patient, with holes cut in the film to allow doctors or nurses to put their hands through to perform procedures, she said.
Although intubation is typically not performed in an ambulance, the device could also be used by ambulance crews in an emergency to prevent them from being exposed to aerosols, Fang said.
The hospital said the tent was designed so that it would be easy to assemble, adding that the device was described in an article in the April issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
Lai Hsien-yung (賴賢勇), an anesthesiologist at Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien, designed something similar in March — an acrylic box — which has already been adopted in the Philippines and Indonesia.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard