Patent ID: 6970574

Claim:
A system for monitoring hand washing or spreading a disinfectant on a user's hands comprising a soap, detergent or disinfectant dispenser for applying soap, detergent or disinfectant to a user's hands, an optical input device in front of which a user places his or her hands after the dispenser has applied soap, detergent or disinfectant while the user goes through a set of motions of washing or spreading the disinfectant over his or her hands, said input device recording one or more optical images of the user's hands while he or she is going through said set of motions, a device for digitizing each of the optical images into a digitized image, a computer having an input for the digitized image and an output for a report, a set of reference optical images taken of the user or of another person going through a set of motions for effective hand washing or spreading of a disinfectant, said reference optical images digitized into a set of reference digitized images and present in the computer, a pattern recognition algorithm executed in the computer that compares each digitized image of the user's hands with the reference set of digitized images to determine whether the user's images match the reference images to a predetermined level that indicates effective hand washing or disinfectant spreading, and creates a report sent through the output.