A Body Tracking-Based Low-Cost Solution for Monitoring Workers' Hygiene Best Practices during Pandemics.

Vito M Manghisi,Michele Fiorentino,Nicola Toschi,Giuseppe L Cascella,Antonio Boccaccio,Antonio Pietroiusti,Antonio E Uva,Michele Gattullo

doi:10.3390/s20216149

Abstract

Since its beginning at the end of 2019, the pandemic spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2) caused more than one million deaths in only nine months. The threat of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases exists as an imminent threat to human health. It is essential to implement adequate hygiene best practices to break the contagion chain and enhance society preparedness for such critical scenarios and understand the relevance of each disease transmission route. As the unconscious hand–face contact gesture constitutes a potential pathway of contagion, in this paper, the authors present a prototype system based on low-cost depth sensors able to monitor in real-time the attitude towards such a habit. The system records people’s behavior to enhance their awareness by providing real-time warnings, providing for statistical reports for designing proper hygiene solutions, and better understanding the role of such route of contagion. A preliminary validation study measured an overall accuracy of 91%. A Cohen’s Kappa equal to 0.876 supports rejecting the hypothesis that such accuracy is accidental. Low-cost body tracking technologies can effectively support monitoring compliance with hygiene best practices and training people in real-time. By collecting data and analyzing them with respect to people categories and contagion statistics, it could be possible to understand the importance of this contagion pathway and identify for which people category such a behavioral attitude constitutes a significant risk.

Highlights

The Risk of PandemicsFollowing the pandemic spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2)and its related disease, COVID-19 [1], the world is experiencing an exceptional threat to public health involving, in only nine months, over 39 million contagions and costing over one million human lives
As no specific therapeutics vaccines are available for available for disease control, the COVID-19 pandemic is posing a greatand threat to global public health
By analyzing the current practice for the containment of the Sars-CoV2 outbreak and searching for the available technological solutions, the authors designed and developed the HealthSHIELD, a software tool based on the Microsoft Kinect Azure D-RGB camera aimed at monitoring compliance with the BPPs

Summary

Introduction

The Risk of PandemicsFollowing the pandemic spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2)and its related disease, COVID-19 [1], the world is experiencing an exceptional threat to public health involving, in only nine months, over 39 million contagions and costing over one million human lives. To contain the virus spread, extraordinary social-distancing measures ( known as lockdown) have been applied worldwide, involving school and workplace closures (Figure 1), travel limitations, Sensors 2020, 20, 6149; doi:10.3390/s20216149 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors. Sensors 2020, 20, 6149 lockdown) have been applied worldwide, involving school and workplace closures (Figure 1), travel limitations, and stay-at-home requirements. Though effective, such measures are not sustainable for and requirements. The primary carrier of contagions is made has high transmissibility and infectivity [4,5]. As no specific therapeutics vaccines are available for available for disease control, the COVID-19 pandemic is posing a greatand threat to global public health

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