APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MONITORING HAND WASHING

• US 20140169622A1
• Filed: 12/15/2012
• Published: 06/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ian James Lambert, John David Lambert, Joseph Ernest Dryer
• Original Assignee: Ian James Lambert, John David Lambert, Joseph Ernest Dryer
• Inventors: Dryer, Joseph Ernest, Lambert, John David, Lambert, Ian James
• Granted Patent: US 9,076,044 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69

Abstract

A method and apparatus to monitor and document that proper hygienic procedures are followed by food service providers consisting of a camera, a processor controlling the camera, and software to accomplish the hand washing monitoring. The criteria for identifying the start and end of a hand washing event by monitoring activity is selected areas is presented. A record is created of the wash event including a sequence of photograph during the event and additional related data such as start time, duration, location, and any employee identification. This record is available for recording or downloading to a server for further manipulation, including washer identification and statistical analysis.

Claims

1. A method for creating an evidentiary record of a wash event, comprising

a. providing a means for acquiring a series of wash images and extracting areas from said series of images to performing evaluations or calculations of said areas, and:

b. providing a means for evaluating activity in one or more specified first regions of each said image indicative of the initiation of a wash event and determining the initiation of said wash event, and

c. providing a means after said detection of said initiation of said wash event for evaluating activity in one or more specified second regions of each said picture indicative of the continuation of said wash event for evidence that said wash event has not ended and determining that said wash event is continuing, and

d. providing a means for creating a wash record of said wash event after said determination that said wash event has initiated and including in said record periodic photographs of said wash event and other useful wash event information while said wash event is determined to be continuing, and

e. providing a means for closing said wash record and reverting to step a above after said determination that said wash event is no longer present, and

f. providing a means for storing and subsequent processing, displaying and combining of said wash records,

whereby said record may be made available to users as evidence of the performance and quality of said hand washing event.

2. The method of creating an evidentiary record of a wash event of claim 1 further including providing a means of display of a selected representation from said sequence of images of said hand washing event at a faster rate than that at which said images were taken whereby the time required for the review of said hand washing events can be reduced.

3. The method of creating an evidentiary record of a wash event of claim 1 further including providing a means of monitoring said series of pictures of said wash station and evaluating activity in one or more third regions of each said picture and for deleting said record when said activity is detected in said third regions.

4. The method of creating an evidentiary record of a wash event of claim 1 wherein said subsequent processing, displaying and combining of said wash records includes the storage in said wash record of information allowing the identification of the washer. Said information could include, but is not limited to, washer RFID identification, recorded audio statements, or said image could be examined for visual indicators such as an ID tag or the use of facial recognition or other biometrics.

5. The method of creating an evidentiary record of a wash event of claim 1 wherein said subsequent processing, displaying and combining of said wash records includes the downloading of said wash records to a server for further processing in said server.

6. The method of creating an evidentiary record of a wash event of claim 5 wherein said downloading of said wash records to a server is accomplished by tunneling whereby tailoring to specific network firewalls is mitigated.

7. The method of creating an evidentiary record of a wash event of claim 1 wherein said one or more said specified first regions and one or more said specified second regions are lines of pixels or pixel groupings.

8. A machine for creating a record of hand washing events comprising an image stream capturing device, such as a camera, and a processing unit to which said images are fed to perform a program comprising the steps of:

a. monitoring each image in said stream of images to detect activity in one or more specified first areas within an image that is indicative of the initiation of a hand washing event in order to determine the initiation of a hand washing event, and

b. if said initiation of hand washing activity has been determined, to then monitoring each image in said stream of images to determine if one or more specified second areas within an image indicative of the continuation of a hand washing event shows activity indicating the continuation of the hand washing event, and

c. to create a hand washing record containing pertinent hand washing information including periodic hand washing images while said continuation of hand washing activity is determined, and

d. when said continuation of said hand washing event is no longer determined, to close said hand washing event, and

e. by software and hardware facilitate user access to said hand washing record and information derived from said hand washing record, and

f. to repeat the above sequence

whereby said record may be made available to users as evidence of the performance and quality of said hand washing event.

9. The machine for creating a record of hand washing events of claim 8 wherein said image stream capturing device is a camera.

10. The machine for creating a record of hand washing events of claim 8 wherein showing of activity comprises exceeding a predetermined minimum difference between the pixel or pixel grouping in the current image and a predetermined function of pixels or pixel groupings from previous images for some function of the number of pixels or pixel groupings.

11. The machine for creating a record of hand washing events of claim 8 wherein said specified first areas and said specified second areas are one or more lines of pixels or pixel groupings.

12. The machine for creating a record of hand washing events of claim 8 further including the step of monitoring each image in said stream of images to detect activity in one or more specified third areas indicative of invalidity of said wash event during said determination of the continuation of a hand washing event, with said detection of activity in said third areas causing a failure to retain said hand washing event.

13. The machine for creating a record of hand washing events of claim 8 wherein said subsequent processing, displaying and combining of said wash records includes the storage in said wash record of information allowing the identification of the washer. Said information could include, but is not limited to, washer RFID identification, recorded audio statements, or said image could be examined for visual indicators such as an ID tag or the use of facial recognition or other biometrics

14. The processing unit program of claim 8 wherein said facilitate user access to said hand washing record compromises downloading all or selected said records to a server capable of further manipulation of said records.

15. The processing unit program of claim 14 wherein wherein said downloading of said wash records to a server is accomplished by tunneling whereby tailoring to specific network firewalls is mitigated.

16. The processing unit program of claim 8 wherein said facilitate user access to said hand washing record further compromises presentation of said periodic hand washing images in said hand washing record is presented at a rate faster than the original period between said periodic hand washing images in order to reduce viewing time.