AI USE CASE
Real-Time PPE Compliance Detection
Automatically detect missing protective equipment on construction sites using live camera feeds.
What it is
Computer vision models analyse CCTV and site camera streams in real-time to flag workers not wearing required PPE such as helmets, vests, or goggles. Alerts are pushed instantly to site supervisors, reducing compliance violations by 60–80% compared to manual spot-checks. Early deployments typically cut recordable safety incidents by 20–35% within the first six months. The system also generates audit-ready compliance logs, reducing time spent on safety reporting by several hours per week.
Data you need
Existing CCTV or IP camera infrastructure covering work zones, plus a labelled dataset of workers with and without PPE for model training or fine-tuning.
Required systems
- none
Why it works
- Conduct a thorough camera coverage audit before deployment to eliminate blind spots.
- Involve site safety officers in validating alert thresholds and PPE class definitions.
- Establish a retraining pipeline triggered whenever new PPE types are introduced.
- Integrate alerts into an existing communication channel (e.g. site radio, mobile app) to ensure rapid response.
How this goes wrong
- Poor lighting or camera angles on site create too many false negatives, undermining trust in the system.
- Workers learn to game alerts near cameras while ignoring PPE elsewhere on site.
- Model accuracy degrades when PPE types or colours change without retraining the model.
- Alert fatigue among supervisors if false positive rates are not tuned down before go-live.
When NOT to do this
Do not deploy this system as the sole enforcement mechanism on a site where camera coverage is sparse or where workers routinely operate in poorly lit or confined spaces — it will miss too many violations to be relied upon.
Vendors to consider
Sources
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