Hard-Hat Detection for Construction Safety Visualization

Kishor Shrestha,Pramen P Shrestha,Dinesh Bajracharya,Evangelos A Yfantis

doi:10.1155/2015/721380

Abstract

In 2012, 775 fatalities were recorded, and many more were injured at construction sites in the United States. Of these, 415 fatalities (54%) were due to fall, slips, and trips as well as being struck by falling objects. In order to decrease fatalities at construction sites to these types of events, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides Fall Prevention and OSHA-10 trainings to construction workers. Moreover, safety personnel monitor whether the workers use personal protective equipment (PPE) properly. Data shows that construction fatalities have decreased by 2% annually since 1994; however, the owners still are not satisfied with this result. Various studies have shown that fall is the biggest contributor for construction fatalities. One study showed that half of the fall fatalities were because the workers either had not used PPEs or had not used them properly. In addition, studies showed that, with proper use of hard hats, the fatalities due to fall, slips, trips, and being struck by falling objects could be reduced. This study developed and tested a hard-hat detection tool that uses image-processing techniques to identify whether workers are wearing hard hats. The tool dispatches warning messages if the workers do not use hard hats.

Highlights

In the United States, many people work at jobsites under unsafe conditions, and thousands lose their lives every year
(1) a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera installed at construction site, (2) a wired/wireless network to transfer videos taken by CCTV camera to the server, (3) a server at the nearest office, (4) speakers at the office and the site to warn against safety violations, (5) cell phones with local area network (LAN) wireless to send warning messages to the concerned people
It consists of a set of CCTV cameras installed at the site, a network connection between cameras, an office computer, a server which acts as a data analysis computer in the office, display computers in the office, warning speakers installed at the site office, and cell phones to deliver safety rule violation alert messages

Summary

Introduction

In the United States, many people work at jobsites under unsafe conditions, and thousands lose their lives every year. If the safety engineers could monitor the workers in real time by using video transmitted from the site, the safety rules regarding hard hats could be enforced more effectively This could reduce the fatality rates due to falls, slips, trips, and being struck by falling objects. The visualization approach is an innovative software tool that monitors the workers in real time and dispatches warning messages to concerned personnel once the safety rules (wearing hard hats properly at this stage) are violated. This approach, shown, consists of (1) a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera installed at construction site,. Technical difficulties in using this tool occur in linear construction projects, such as road construction or buildings with limited range of the cameras

Literature Review

Research Methodology

Face Detection Program Development

Hard-Hat Detection Program Development

Findings

Discussion and Conclusion