COVID-19 Classroom Occupancy Detection System

The classroom occupancy detection system aims to limit the spread of COVID-19 and support mitigation efforts advised by national and international health organizations by enforcing social distancing in classroom environments. Utilizing the RaspberryPi computer and its compatible camera module, the system accomplishes this by capturing an overhead image of a classroom and assessing the image for violations. Here, violations are defined as the presence of adjacent occupied seats. As such, for an acceptable state to be detected, there must be at least one vacant seat between all students seated in the classroom. The system communicates the classroom’s state with two light-emitting diode circuits, illuminating a green LED to denote an acceptable state and a red LED to denote one or more violations. System performance was evaluated under three test case scenarios with a simulated classroom environment. The test case results revealed that the system can accurately detect acceptable conditions, as well as the presence of one or more seating violations. However, the inability to account for human behaviors and complex seating layouts limits the system’s real-world functionality. Despite its current limitations, this project suggests that image processing techniques may be a feasible solution to support social distancing in the classroom

Diabetic Foot Exam System

The diabetic foot exam system aims to perform certain aspects of the dermatological and musculoskeletal assessments that are typical to a 3-minute diabetic foot exam. Utilizing the RaspberryPi computer and camera module, the system seeks to capture a series of images of the patient’s foot. It then evaluates these images for calluses, blisters, and three types of deformities: claw toe deformities, hammertoe deformities, and bunions. This evaluation is performed using a trained TensorFlow image classification model, which categorizes the image as a callus, blister, or deformity. The system was tested using six different images: four callus images, a hammertoe deformity image, and a claw toe deformity image. One of the callus images and the hammertoe image were correctly classified. The remaining images were incorrectly classified with high confidence levels, suggesting that there is overfitting in the model. These results emphasize the need for a larger, more diverse dataset for training and validation, as well as additional image processing techniques such as background subtraction, to improve system functionality

ODU Undergraduate Students Addressing the Societal Problems of Parking Control, Classroom Seating, and Flood Monitoring in Hampton Roads

During the summer of 2021, ODU undergraduate computer science students undertook image processing research projects. These projects focused on utilizing the Raspberry Pi computer and camera module to address three real-world problems concerning parking control, classroom seating, and flood monitoring. The parking lot occupancy project aimed to develop a system that monitors the occupancy of parking spaces in a lot and communicates the status of the lot of drivers and the lot attendants. The COVID-19 classroom occupancy project sought to enforce social distancing protocols in a classroom environment by detecting seating violations and notifying the instructor and the impacted students of the violation. Designed for the Hampton Roads community, the flood detection project concerned the development of a vision system, controlled by the Raspberry Pi, that detects the flood levels of a particular location and determines if the flooding is low, moderate, or severe. This paper details the development of these projects and proposes future considerations and recommendations for further undergraduate study and improved real-world functionality

Use of Protective Gloves in Nail Salons in Manhattan, New York City

Objectives: Nail salon owners in New York City (NYC) are required to provide their workers with gloves and it is their responsibility to maintain healthy, safe working spaces for their employees. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency with which nail salon workers wear protective gloves. Methods: A Freedom of Information Law request was submitted to New York Department of State’s Division of Licensing Services for a full list of nail salons in Manhattan, NYC. A sample population of 800 nail salons was identified and a simple random sample (without replacement) of 30% (n=240) was selected using a random number generator. Researchers visited each nail salon from October to December of 2015, posing as a potential customer to determine if nail salon workers were wearing gloves. Results: Among the 169 salons in which one or more workers was observed providing services, a total of 562 workers were observed. For 149 salons, in which one or more worker was observed providing services, none of the workers were wearing gloves. In contrast, in six of the salons observed, in which one or more workers was providing services, all of the workers (1 in 2 sites, 2 in 1 site, 3 in 2 sites, and 4 in 1 site) were wearing gloves. Almost three-quarters of the total number of workers observed (n=415, 73.8%) were not wearing gloves. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that, despite recent media attention and legislation, the majority of nail salon workers we observed were not wearing protective gloves when providing services

Public Online Information About Tinnitus: A Cross-Sectional Study of Youtube Videos

Purpose: To examine the information about tinnitus contained in different video sources on YouTube. Materials and Methods: The 100 most widely viewed tinnitus videos were manually coded. Firstly, we identified the sources of upload: consumer, professional, television-based clip, and internet-based clip. Secondly, the videos were analyzed to ascertain what pertinent information they contained from a current National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders fact sheet. Results: Of the videos, 42 were consumer-generated, 33 from media, and 25 from professionals. Collectively, the 100 videos were viewed almost 9 million times. The odds of mentioning “objective tinnitus” in professional videos were 9.58 times those from media sources [odds ratio (OR) = 9.58; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.94, 47.42; P = 0.01], whereas these odds in consumer videos were 51% of media-generated videos (OR = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.20, 1.29; P = 0.16). The odds that the purpose of a video was to sell a product or service were nearly the same for both consumer and professional videos. Consumer videos were found to be 4.33 times as likely to carry a theme about an individual’s own experience with tinnitus (OR = 4.33; 95% CI: 1.62, 11.63; P = 0.004) as media videos. Conclusions: Of the top 100 viewed videos on tinnitus, most were uploaded by consumers, sharing individuals’ experiences. Actions are needed to make scientific medical information more prominently available and accessible on YouTube and other social media

Public online information about tinnitus: A cross-sectional study of YouTube videos

Purpose: To examine the information about tinnitus contained in different video sources on YouTube. Materials and Methods: The 100 most widely viewed tinnitus videos were manually coded. Firstly, we identified the sources of upload: consumer, professional, television-based clip, and internet-based clip. Secondly, the videos were analyzed to ascertain what pertinent information they contained from a current National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders fact sheet. Results: Of the videos, 42 were consumer-generated, 33 from media, and 25 from professionals. Collectively, the 100 videos were viewed almost 9 million times. The odds of mentioning “objective tinnitus” in professional videos were 9.58 times those from media sources [odds ratio (OR) = 9.58; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.94, 47.42; P = 0.01], whereas these odds in consumer videos were 51% of media-generated videos (OR = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.20, 1.29; P = 0.16). The odds that the purpose of a video was to sell a product or service were nearly the same for both consumer and professional videos. Consumer videos were found to be 4.33 times as likely to carry a theme about an individual’s own experience with tinnitus (OR = 4.33; 95% CI: 1.62, 11.63; P = 0.004) as media videos. Conclusions: Of the top 100 viewed videos on tinnitus, most were uploaded by consumers, sharing individuals’ experiences. Actions are needed to make scientific medical information more prominently available and accessible on YouTube and other social media

Information Available on YouTube Related to Tinnitus

This presentation was given during the Georgia Southern University Research Symposium