Zika Virus Monitoring

 

Overview:

Abstract:

  • The goal is to identify and map possible breeding grounds of Zika carrying mosquitoes.
  • Using geotagged images, temperature, humidity and wind velocity information with a drone and perhaps some form of readily available dataset.
  • Involves quality assessment of images to reject images with blurs and distortions.
  • Figure out breeding grounds hotspots by distinguishing images showing tires, stagnant water etc along with integrating with data from temperature, humidity and wind sensors.
  • Visualize a heat map based on the probability of a location being a potential breeding ground of Zika carrying mosquitoes.
  • Make such heat maps/visualizations available to concerned health/government authorities for them to take suitable preventive measures to stop the spread of the disease.
  • Potentially identify the data correlation between ambient conditions & the Zika Virus.

 

Introduction

  • The Main Computer on the drone is the micro-controller we wish to use to interface the sensors and the databases in the cloud with.
  • A thermal camera using IR imaging is connected to the iPhone which sends the thermal images to the controller.
  • The Image processing is carried out in the cloud connected to the controller. IP recognizes warm water filled areas.
  • The controller finds the probability of an area to be a potential breeding ground of the mosquito based on the image processing results and a probability algorithm which also uses data from the environmental sensors.
  • Temperature and humidity sensors are interface directly with the controller.

 

Marketing Potential

The Zika Virus has already become an urgent international concern for health and disease control authorities. Any research to curb the spread of the disease is valuable and hence marketable. As Brazil aims to host the Olympics this year, Rio de Janeiro is looking for answers to the rampant spread of the Zika Virus. Government authorities and international health organizations including the WHO are investing heavily in projects to help inhibit the dangers of the virus.

 

Features

  • Thermal imaging
  • Geotagging images
  • Temperature and Humidity information
  • iOS App visualization and control
  • Heat map visualization
  • Drone mobility

 

Technical Components

  • The Drone: The DJI Phantom 3 Advanced is a very polished product. It’s easy to fly, includes nice safety features, and captures smooth aerial video at 2.7K resolution. It has advanced features such as vision positioning system, GPS-assisted hover, easy and intuitive controls, 3-asix stabilization gimbal and so on.
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  • IR camera: Flir One is light weight, easy to connect and easy to use. It includes non-contact spot temperature measurement, MSX Technology for superior image quality, automatic shuttering Lepton thermal camera module and the App offers thermal panoramas and thermal timelapse.
  • iPhone with iOS App.
  • Temperature and humidity sensors.
  • Cloud: hosting databases, web server visualization and applications.

Results

Thermal Images with basic IP outputs:

FLIR0018_threshold FLIR0020_threshold FLIR0008_threshold

So far: The images above show a distinction being made to detect warm water regions.

Contributors:

Maanit Mehra, Aditya Bagri

Web Portal

http://zika-virus-monitoring.weebly.com

References

  • “Detection of Potential Mosquito Breeding Sites Based on Community Sourced Geotagged Images.” SPIE. N.p., n.d. Web. Feb. 2016.
  • N.p., n.d. Web. <http://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=oa_dissertations>.
  • Advanced. PHANTOM 3 (n.d.): n. pag. Web.