Exploring industrial and distributor applications for OptiSense advanced monitoring
By Herman DeBoard
Today, innovation has become the linchpin as businesses seek to ensure workplace safety, efficiency, and compliance with regulatory standards. For example, Huvr’s advanced monitoring platform OpticSense uses sophisticated artificial intelligence with fiber optic interferometer technology to enhance a wide variety of operational environments.
By combining cutting-edge audio and video anomaly detection with AI-driven analysis, we can identify safety risks in seconds. Not only that, but we can also facilitate immediate corrective actions and continuous staff training to prevent these safety risks in the future.
Let’s examine how one Denver restaurant uses the new technology to enhance safety for employees and customers and then consider how the advances can scale to several industrial environments.
Ensuring compliance and enhancing safety in the restaurant industry
An innovative Denver-based restaurant partnered with us to monitor its safety more closely. In less than a day, we helped them install the OpticSense system’s patented fiberoptic ring interferometer system around the entire facility. By integrating this system into the restaurant's structure, we turned the very footprint of the kitchen into a high-tech microphone combined with high-resolution cameras that are capable of detecting compliance-related audio and video anomalies.
Now, OpticSense monitors the restaurant’s kitchen staff in real time. The sensors detect movements and sounds and analyze them to ensure compliance with safety protocols.
For example, the system can monitor whether kitchen staff use proper gloves when handling raw meat or adhere to hygienic practices during food preparation. This proactive monitoring reduces the risk of contamination and other health hazards.
Real-time notifications: a game changer for immediate correction and training
When the restaurant’s system detects a potential safety violation, it immediately alerts the manager. This allows prompt corrective actions, such as asking staff members to change gloves or sanitize a workstation. The swift response mitigates immediate risks and reinforces a culture of safety within the workplace.
Beyond immediate corrections, the system’s notifications serve as a valuable training tool. The manager uses the data and insights provided by OpticSense to conduct staff training sessions, focusing on areas where violations are frequent. Over time, this leads to improved compliance, reducing the likelihood of future violations and fostering a safer work environment.
Our ultimate goal is not to penalize employees but rather to create a safer environment by proactively identifying potential OSHA violations in real time. Our focus is on training, not penalties.
Scaling real-time safety alerts beyond restaurants to industrial settings
Huvr’s technology shows immense promise beyond the restaurant industry, particularly in diverse industrial environments like oil refineries, manufacturing plants, and construction sites.
Just as with restaurant kitchens, industrial settings are fraught with potential hazards. From oil spills to machinery malfunctions, the stakes are high, and the need for real-time monitoring and swift intervention is paramount. With minimal modifications, we can scale OpticSense to monitor such hazards effectively.
For example, spills in oil refineries and drilling sites pose significant risks to the environment and worker safety. Integrating OpticSense technology to monitor and detect spills in real time allows for prompt containment and cleanup, drastically minimizing potential damage.
In an oil spill scenario, the system could detect abnormal sounds associated with a spill, such as the burst of a pipeline or the unusual hissing of escaping gas, and immediately trigger cameras to assess the situation. The AI would rapidly analyze the audio and visual data, prioritizing it as a high-level anomaly and notifying relevant authorities within seconds.
Similarly, in a construction setting, we can configure OpticSense to monitor for safety compliance, such as workers wearing helmets and harnesses. We can also train the AI to alert supervisors to potential fall hazards or equipment misuse. Deploying OpticSense can provide site managers with real-time data and alerts, ensuring regulatory compliance and enhancing overall safety on the job site.
OpticSense's capability to detect minute sound anomalies and visual abnormalities, coupled with machine learning algorithms that prioritize the importance of these anomalies, is a game-changer. We can customize the system to monitor the specific instances that each industrial environment deems important.
As Huvr's AI algorithms learn from various incidents in each specific environment, their ability to accurately assess risks improves over time. This continuous refinement leads to the development of more specialized applications, such as predictive maintenance in manufacturing plants or advanced threat detection in high-security zones.
Whether in the fast-paced environment of a restaurant kitchen or the high-risk zones of industrial settings, a system offering real-time detection and notification is invaluable.
Herman DeBoard is the CEO of Huvr, a real-time virtual services platform.
INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY MAGAZINE
The November/December issue of Industrial Supply magazine features an in-depth cover story about Kimball Midwest. Plus, we're featuring articles by contributing writers Dirk Beveridge, Frank Hurtte, and Mike Marks, as well as interviews with numerous product and distribution industry experts.
