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Monitoring hand hygiene

  • US 9,000,926 B2
  • Filed: 05/27/2011
  • Issued: 04/07/2015
  • Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2010
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of monitoring hand washing by individuals, the method comprising:

  • monitoring movements of individuals in an area using at least one sensor;

    identifying a performance of an act by one of the individuals that requires hands of the one of the individuals to be washed before or after the performance of the act; and

    determining whether the hands of the one of the individuals are washed,wherein the at least one sensor comprises a low resolution two dimensional array of pyroelectric detectors having a sufficient number of elements to track movement of the one of the individuals in the area and communicates with a state estimation system for outputting information comprising estimates of a state of the individuals monitored by the at least one sensor, andwherein the method further comprises processing signals from the pyroelectric detectors and said state estimation system performing a group of actions comprising;

    tracking a motion of the one of the individuals using a tracking algorithm which retains in a memory knowledge of a location of an individual when the individual remains motionless and disappears from an image of the at least one sensor such that the location of the individual is picked up when the individual moves again,providing an indication that the one of the individuals has performed an act that requires that hand washing, andproviding an indication that the one of the individuals has performed the hand washing.

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