Using Smartwatches to Detect Face Touching
Frequent spontaneous facial self-touches, predominantly during outbreaks, have the theoretical potential to be a mechanism of contracting and transmitting diseases. Despite the recent advent of vaccines, behavioral approaches remain an integral part of reducing the spread of COVID-19 and other respi...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-09-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/19/6528 |
| _version_ | 1827680569768542208 |
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| author | Chen Bai Yu-Peng Chen Adam Wolach Lisa Anthony Mamoun T. Mardini |
| author_facet | Chen Bai Yu-Peng Chen Adam Wolach Lisa Anthony Mamoun T. Mardini |
| author_sort | Chen Bai |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Frequent spontaneous facial self-touches, predominantly during outbreaks, have the theoretical potential to be a mechanism of contracting and transmitting diseases. Despite the recent advent of vaccines, behavioral approaches remain an integral part of reducing the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses. The aim of this study was to utilize the functionality and the spread of smartwatches to develop a smartwatch application to identify motion signatures that are mapped accurately to face touching. Participants (<i>n</i> = 10, five women, aged 20–83) performed 10 physical activities classified into face touching (FT) and non-face touching (NFT) categories in a standardized laboratory setting. We developed a smartwatch application on Samsung Galaxy Watch to collect raw accelerometer data from participants. Data features were extracted from consecutive non-overlapping windows varying from 2 to 16 s. We examined the performance of state-of-the-art machine learning methods on face-touching movement recognition (FT vs. NFT) and individual activity recognition (IAR): logistic regression, support vector machine, decision trees, and random forest. While all machine learning models were accurate in recognizing FT categories, logistic regression achieved the best performance across all metrics (accuracy: 0.93 ± 0.08, recall: 0.89 ± 0.16, precision: 0.93 ± 0.08, F1-score: 0.90 ± 0.11, AUC: 0.95 ± 0.07) at the window size of 5 s. IAR models resulted in lower performance, where the random forest classifier achieved the best performance across all metrics (accuracy: 0.70 ± 0.14, recall: 0.70 ± 0.14, precision: 0.70 ± 0.16, F1-score: 0.67 ± 0.15) at the window size of 9 s. In conclusion, wearable devices, powered by machine learning, are effective in detecting facial touches. This is highly significant during respiratory infection outbreaks as it has the potential to limit face touching as a transmission vector. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T06:51:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d9bec5c0594b4b21bb8575543917caba |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T06:51:34Z |
| publishDate | 2021-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-d9bec5c0594b4b21bb8575543917caba2023-11-22T16:47:28ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202021-09-012119652810.3390/s21196528Using Smartwatches to Detect Face TouchingChen Bai0Yu-Peng Chen1Adam Wolach2Lisa Anthony3Mamoun T. Mardini4Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USADepartment of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USADepartment of Aging and Geriatric Research, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USADepartment of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USADepartment of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USAFrequent spontaneous facial self-touches, predominantly during outbreaks, have the theoretical potential to be a mechanism of contracting and transmitting diseases. Despite the recent advent of vaccines, behavioral approaches remain an integral part of reducing the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses. The aim of this study was to utilize the functionality and the spread of smartwatches to develop a smartwatch application to identify motion signatures that are mapped accurately to face touching. Participants (<i>n</i> = 10, five women, aged 20–83) performed 10 physical activities classified into face touching (FT) and non-face touching (NFT) categories in a standardized laboratory setting. We developed a smartwatch application on Samsung Galaxy Watch to collect raw accelerometer data from participants. Data features were extracted from consecutive non-overlapping windows varying from 2 to 16 s. We examined the performance of state-of-the-art machine learning methods on face-touching movement recognition (FT vs. NFT) and individual activity recognition (IAR): logistic regression, support vector machine, decision trees, and random forest. While all machine learning models were accurate in recognizing FT categories, logistic regression achieved the best performance across all metrics (accuracy: 0.93 ± 0.08, recall: 0.89 ± 0.16, precision: 0.93 ± 0.08, F1-score: 0.90 ± 0.11, AUC: 0.95 ± 0.07) at the window size of 5 s. IAR models resulted in lower performance, where the random forest classifier achieved the best performance across all metrics (accuracy: 0.70 ± 0.14, recall: 0.70 ± 0.14, precision: 0.70 ± 0.16, F1-score: 0.67 ± 0.15) at the window size of 9 s. In conclusion, wearable devices, powered by machine learning, are effective in detecting facial touches. This is highly significant during respiratory infection outbreaks as it has the potential to limit face touching as a transmission vector.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/19/6528smartwatchaccelerometerface touchingmachine learningCOVID-19respiratory illnesses |
| spellingShingle | Chen Bai Yu-Peng Chen Adam Wolach Lisa Anthony Mamoun T. Mardini Using Smartwatches to Detect Face Touching Sensors smartwatch accelerometer face touching machine learning COVID-19 respiratory illnesses |
| title | Using Smartwatches to Detect Face Touching |
| title_full | Using Smartwatches to Detect Face Touching |
| title_fullStr | Using Smartwatches to Detect Face Touching |
| title_full_unstemmed | Using Smartwatches to Detect Face Touching |
| title_short | Using Smartwatches to Detect Face Touching |
| title_sort | using smartwatches to detect face touching |
| topic | smartwatch accelerometer face touching machine learning COVID-19 respiratory illnesses |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/19/6528 |
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