Capabilities - PPE Detection
PPE Detection is designed to monitor workers in real time to verify that required personal protective equipment is being worn. The system identifies hard hats, high-visibility vests, safety goggles, gloves, and respiratory protection across multiple camera feeds simultaneously. Rather than relying on periodic manual inspections, continuous monitoring can catch the moment equipment is removed or forgotten. The platform supports custom PPE types through transfer learning, accommodating site-specific requirements. It is built for environments subject to occupational safety standards.
- Compliance Monitoring
- Continuous
- Processing Latency
- <75ms
- Standard PPE Types
- 6
How it works - PPE Detection in three steps
Get started with ppe detection in minutes using your existing camera infrastructure.
- Connect Site Cameras. Use existing site surveillance cameras or add purpose-mounted cameras at entry gates, work zones, and high-risk areas. The system works with any IP camera delivering at least 720p resolution.
- Detect Workers and Equipment. The model simultaneously detects workers and the PPE items they are (or are not) wearing. Each person is assessed against the zone-specific PPE requirements configured for that camera view.
- Alert on Non-Compliance. When a worker enters a zone without required PPE, the system sends an alert to the safety supervisor with a snapshot and the specific items missing. All compliance events are logged for reporting.
Features
Everything you need for production-grade ppe detection.
- Hard Hat Detection. Detects the presence or absence of hard hats on workers, distinguishing between proper wearing, improper wearing (tilted/backward), and absence.
- High-Visibility Vest Detection. Identifies high-vis vests and jackets, including color classification (orange, yellow, green) to verify the correct vest type for the work zone.
- Safety Goggle and Face Shield Detection. Verifies eye protection is worn in designated areas. Works at distances up to 15 meters with cameras providing at least 1080p resolution.
- Glove Detection. Identifies whether workers are wearing gloves when handling materials or operating equipment. Best performance with cameras positioned to capture hand and arm regions.
- Respiratory Protection Detection. Detects N95 masks, half-face respirators, and full-face respirators. Distinguishes between proper fit and mask-below-nose conditions.
- Zone-Based PPE Rules. Configure different PPE requirements for different zones within a site. A warehouse aisle may require only vests, while a welding bay requires full face shield, gloves, and apron.
- Custom PPE Training. Train the system to recognize site-specific PPE items (fall harnesses, hearing protection, specific aprons) using as few as 300 annotated images via transfer learning.
- Compliance Reporting Dashboard. Daily, weekly, and monthly compliance rates by zone, shift, and PPE type. Exportable reports support safety audit documentation.
What we detect - Six classes of protection, continuously verified
The system goes beyond simple presence checks. Each PPE type is verified for correct wearing, proper fit, and zone-appropriate selection — catching the real-world compliance gaps that periodic inspections miss.
Hard Hat
The system doesn’t just check if a hard hat is nearby — it verifies the hat is actually on the worker’s head and worn correctly. A hat tilted backward, carried in hand, or sitting on a shelf won’t count as compliant. This catches the most common hard hat violations that manual inspections miss: workers who tilt their hats back for comfort or remove them the moment a supervisor walks away.
Catches improper wearing, not just absence — the violations manual checks miss most often.
High-Visibility Vest
Different zones often require different vest colors — orange for ground crews, green for visitors, yellow for operators. The system verifies not just that a vest is worn, but that it’s the right color for the zone and actually fastened. Workers who leave vests hanging open or grab the wrong color from the rack are flagged before they enter a restricted area.
Verifies the right vest color for each zone — not just that one is present.
Safety Goggles & Face Shield
Eye protection pushed up on the forehead is one of the most common compliance gaps — technically present but offering zero protection. The system distinguishes goggles properly covering the eyes from goggles resting on the forehead, and can tell safety goggles from regular glasses or sunglasses. Works reliably from standard ceiling-mounted cameras.
Catches the “goggles on forehead” gap that passes every manual walkthrough.
Gloves
The system checks both hands independently — catching workers who remove one glove to use a phone or handle paperwork while still in a glove-required zone. It works even when hands are partially hidden by tools or materials, and distinguishes between different glove types to verify workers are wearing the right protection for their task.
Checks each hand independently — catches single-glove shortcuts.
Respiratory Protection
A respirator worn below the nose provides zero protection — but it’s the single most common mask-wearing violation. The system detects whether respiratory protection is properly covering both nose and mouth, and distinguishes between N95 masks, half-face respirators, and full-face units to verify the right level of protection for each hazard zone.
Detects mask-below-nose — the most common and most dangerous respirator violation.
Custom PPE
Every site has unique requirements — fall harnesses at height, hearing protection near heavy machinery, specific aprons in welding bays. Rather than forcing you into a fixed set of detectable items, the system can be trained to recognize your site-specific PPE. We work with your safety team to identify the items that matter most, then train detection from your own reference images.
Your site, your rules — trained on the specific equipment your workers need.
Use cases
Real-world applications of ppe detection across industries.
Construction Site Safety
Construction sites have varying PPE requirements across zones and trades. Continuous monitoring can ensure that workers wear the correct equipment as they move between different risk areas.
- Construction
Manufacturing Floor Compliance
Factory floors require specific PPE near machines, chemical storage, and assembly areas. Automated detection can catch workers who forget to don required equipment after breaks.
- Manufacturing
Oil and Gas Operations
Refineries and drilling sites have strict PPE requirements that vary by hazard zone. Camera-based monitoring can supplement manual safety patrols in hard-to-access areas.
- Energy
- Chemical
Mining Operations
Underground and open-pit mines require continuous PPE monitoring in environments where conditions change rapidly. The system is designed to operate under challenging lighting and dust conditions.
- Mining
Food Processing Hygiene
Food facilities require hairnets, gloves, and sometimes face shields in processing areas. Detection can ensure hygiene compliance is maintained throughout production shifts.
- Food Processing
- Manufacturing
Laboratory Safety
Research laboratories require goggles, gloves, and lab coats in specific areas. Automated monitoring can support laboratory safety officers in maintaining compliance with institutional protocols.
- Research
- Pharma
Adaptive intelligence - A system that gets smarter at your site
Detection that adapts to your specific environment, learns your equipment, and surfaces the compliance patterns that matter most to your safety team.
Equipment Condition Monitoring
The gap
A cracked hard hat, a vest with faded reflective strips, or goggles with a scratched lens all pass a presence check — but they’re not providing proper protection. Traditional systems can’t tell the difference between functional and degraded equipment.
How we close it
The system learns what properly maintained equipment looks like and flags items that appear damaged, degraded, or worn beyond their effective life. Your safety team gets an early alert to replace equipment before it fails — turning PPE detection into a proactive maintenance tool.
Catches equipment condition issues invisible to presence-only checks.
Automatic PPE Inventory
The gap
When deploying to a new site, someone has to catalog every type of PPE in use before the system can be configured. On large sites with multiple zones, trades, and contractors, this inventory process is slow and always incomplete.
How we close it
The system observes your site and automatically groups workers by the equipment they’re wearing. Your safety team reviews the groups and names them — instead of manually cataloging every PPE type, you confirm what the system has already found. Weeks of setup compressed into hours.
Deploys faster by discovering what PPE exists on your site automatically.
Works in Your Environment
The gap
Your site doesn’t look like a training dataset. Underground mines have sodium lighting, outdoor construction has weather glare, food processing has steam. A system trained on clean, well-lit imagery can struggle in real conditions.
How we close it
Before going live, the system studies your site’s specific conditions — lighting, backgrounds, camera angles, typical worker appearances — using your existing camera feeds. It’s adapted to your environment before the first compliance check runs, not after weeks of false alarms.
Adapted to your lighting, cameras, and conditions before the first alert fires.
Compliance Trend Analysis
The gap
Spot checks tell you compliance at one moment. They don’t reveal patterns — like the crew that removes goggles after lunch, or the zone where vest compliance drops every Friday afternoon.
How we close it
Continuous monitoring builds compliance profiles by zone, shift, crew, and time of day. The system surfaces recurring patterns and anomalies automatically — so your safety team can address root causes, not just individual violations.
Turns individual violations into actionable compliance trends by zone, shift, and time.
Early Warning for New Situations
The gap
Regulations change, new hazards appear, and PPE requirements evolve. A fixed system only detects what it was originally configured for — everything else is a blind spot.
How we close it
The system maintains an awareness of what “normal” looks like across your site. When something changes — workers suddenly wearing unfamiliar equipment, or behavior patterns shifting in a zone — it raises an alert so your team can investigate before a new situation becomes a compliance gap.
Alerts your team when something changes — even before the system knows what it is.
See how ppe detection works in your environment
Schedule a free discovery call. We will walk through your cameras, your use case, and what our detection models can do for you.
Technical specifications
- Models
- YOLOv8 multi-label detector with PPE-specific training on 500K+ annotated construction and industrial images
- Accuracy
- Detects 6 standard PPE types: hard hats, vests, goggles, gloves, respirators, and face shields; custom PPE via transfer learning
- Latency
- <75ms per frame on NVIDIA T4
- Input Formats
- RTSP, ONVIF, MP4, HLS
- Output Formats
- JSON, MQTT, Webhooks, CSV compliance reports, PDF audit reports
- Edge Support
- NVIDIA Jetson, ruggedized field units, mine-safe enclosures available
Industries using this capability
Related capabilities
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Contact us
- Headquarters
ConductScience Inc.
5250 Old Orchard Rd Suite 300
Skokie, IL 60077
+1 (847) 983-3672 - Sales & Support
info@conductscience.com
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