it is called deep learning to process images. These efforts of everyone, we were able to achieve better
algorithms require multiple images to identify people results than expected. This project helped us to dis-
wearing face mask and people without face mask. cover new horizons for scientific developments that
The requisites of face detection algorithm are affect- can be used to overcome the current crisis."
ed by many factors, such as background, lighting, The Engineering Team
etc., which increases the difficulty of discovering or The team consisted of engineers and students from
identifying the face. Therefore, a number of factors various engineering disciplines and universities with
were identified to influence the effectiveness of the a passion for innovation and learning in the field of
intelligent algorithm. These factors were used to artificial intelligence.
collect data and images of persons wearing face Eng. Muhammad Osama Al-Nour, Electrical and
masks and those without face masks. The database Electronics Engineer
collected by a team of engineers contained almost Eng. Muhammad Saeed Al-Hajjar, electrical engi-
ten thousand images for the purpose of preparing neering student at the American University of Shar-
the algorithm and training the images. After display- jah
ing these images on the algorithm prepared using Eng. Mohamed Abdel Gawad, Electrical and Elec-
programming languages, the algorithm could extract tronics Engineer
data, classify images, and identify persons that are Eng. Abdullah Al Naqbi, Mechatronics Engineer
not wearing face masks. Eng. Mohamed Osama Al- Eng. Hassan Al Ali, Software Engineer
Nur stated that "the thermal map has been used to Eng. Abdullah Al Hammadi, Electrical Engineer
show the intelligent algorithm mechanism of identi- Eng. Abdul Shaker, Computer Engineering student
fying persons wearing face masks. The thermal map at the American University of Sharjah
represents the areas around which the algorithm Dr. Eng. Reem Ashour, researcher and has PhD in
revolves while detecting the face mask." Through Robotics Engineering
analyzing the images and using the thermal map, Eng. Reem Musabeh, Chemical Engineering stu-
persons without masks were detected correctly as dent at the United Arab Emirates University
the technique proved its 100% accurate effective- Eng. Nadine Tariq, Computer Engineering student
ness and success.
at the American University of Sharjah
The experiment has shown that artificial intelligence Conclusion
technologies are able to handle and process large- We can, with the success of the artificial intelli-
size images, which reduces human intervention and gence technology usage model represented in
saves time and effort to analyze image. Though it machine learning algorithms, infer the uses of this
can detect persons wearing face mask and those modern technology to detect the violations of pre-
without it, the intelligent algorithm faces challenges ventive measures of wearing face masks to limit the
while analyzing images, including the insertion of spread of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). This
images with specific sizes, the external effects; such technology can be used at the entrances of com-
as lighting and background, and the color of the face mercial market, centers, and public facilities where
mask, as well as the accuracy of programming and this study is presented by setting the basics of using
results. Eng. Muhammad Saeed Al-Hajjar also said intelligent algorithms in solving daily problems. This
"building the neural network was a new challenge. technology can be also developed to detect persons
We have programmed the software in a very short without face masks using video tracking to detect
time and the challenge was to achieve a high accu- violating motorists who are not wearing face masks.
racy rate. With the cooperation of the team and the
Studies
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