Deep Learning Based Face Mask Detection System Using MobileNetV2 for Enhanced Health Protocol Compliance

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is crucial in mitigating the spread of infections within the pharmacy industry, manufacturing sectors, and healthcare facilities. Airborne particles and contaminants can be released during the handling of pharmaceuticals, the operation of machinery, or patient care activities. These particles can be transmitted through close contact with an infected individual or by touching contaminated surfaces and then touching one's face (mouth, nose, or eyes). PPE, including face masks, plays a vital role in minimizing the risk of transmission of infectious diseases. Although mandates for wearing face masks might relax as situations improve and vaccination rates increase, staying prepared for potential future outbreaks and the resurgence of infectious diseases remains important. Therefore, an automated system for face mask detection is important for future use. This research proposes real-time face mask detection by identifying who is (i) not wearing a mask and (ii) wearing a mask. This research presents a deep-learning approach using a pre-trained model, MobileNet-V2. The model is trained on a 10,000 dataset of images of individuals with and without masks. The result shows that the pre-trained MobileNet-V2 model obtained a high accuracy of 98.69% on the testing dataset.