Making Sure Dog Owners Keep Streets Clean with AI

Louis Loizides utilized Roboflow, a computer vision platform, to address the public health issue of dog owners neglecting to clean up after their pets in a community space. Living near an elementary school with a frequently used yard, Loizides sought a solution to prevent children from encountering dog waste. He developed a keypoint detection model using a security camera to monitor dogs and owners, analyzing the dog's posture and the owner's actions to determine if waste was left behind. Despite challenges with image quality and the variability of dog appearances, Loizides achieved a model that could discern when a dog was in a "dropping" position and if an owner picked up the waste. The project involved creating synthetic data to improve model accuracy and leveraging Roboflow's capabilities to build a workflow that included face-blurring for privacy. Although the model faced some limitations, such as false positives and issues with detecting small or blurry dogs, it demonstrated potential for broader applications, including litter detection and monitoring animal behavior, highlighting Roboflow's utility in developing practical computer vision solutions for public spaces.