Efficient Face Mask Detection Method Using YOLOX: An Approach to Reduce Coronavirus Spread

ABSTRACT

Many lives have been put in danger since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. According to WHO (World Health Organization)'s statements, breathing without a mask is highly dangerous in public and crowded places. Wearing a mask is essential as long as the vaccination is not widely used and does not fully protect everyone. Wearing masks does minimize the chances of becoming infected and the transmission of Coronavirus. Due to this, many public service providers may mandate customers to wear masks in order to get service.However, manually monitoring whether people are wearing a mask or not in public is inefficient and difficult. This paper proposes replacing manual inspection with a deep learning-based method using YOLOX, the most powerful objection detection algorithm. The results of the experiments show that the algorithm described in this work can efficiently detect face masks and enable more effective personnel monitoring than other YOLO series models. In addition, as compared to other models, our technique has significant benefits in terms of speed and accuracy in small and crowded areas. © 2022 IEEE.