Automated Visual Anthropometry for Three-Dimensional Assessment of Respirators (AVATAR)

Military respirator masks provide the Warfighter with life critical protection against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats. To ensure the safety, comfort, and effectiveness of the American Warfighter, it is essential that every Warfighter be assigned a respirator that is properly sized and fitted. However, current methods for sizing and fitting respirators depend on manual, partially subjective processes, and no single tool enables end-to-end automatic quantitative assessment and comparison of protective fit. To address these shortfalls, we will design and demonstrate a software system enabling Automated Visual Anthropometry for Three-Dimensional Assessment of Respirators (AVATAR). The AVATAR system consists of advanced 3D reconstruction and respirator fit assessment software that requires only a smartphone with an integrated camera. The software processes 2D video of the user’s face, taken at arm’s length from multiple viewpoints, and estimates the user’s 3D facial shape parameters to produce a robust, quantitative prediction of respirator fit. AVATAR directly supports the Warfighter by enabling untrained personnel to self-administer respirator sizing and fitting procedures through the automatic extraction and analysis of useful anthropometric data.