Cultural / Context information for the jury

The risk of COVID-19 infection is far more dangerous indoors compared to outdoors. Despite Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare making mask usage mandatory to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it is still easy to forget to wear masks while dining in cafes and restaurants. (only 12% wear masks in cafes) In Korea, cafes became the new trigger of COVID-19 outbreaks due to unworn masks in cafes, causing Dal.Komm, Korea’s leading cafe franchise, to face 40% decrease in sales profit.

Please outline the innovative elements of the work

We observed that most cafe visitors in Korea immediately connect to the cafe’s free Wi-Fi when entering a cafe. Keeping this in mind, we developed a unique Mask ID system that lets visitors connect to free Wi-Fi once they verify that they are wearing masks with their smart devices. Mask ID is a web-based Wi-Fi connection system that allows Dal.Komm cafe’s free Wi-Fi usage when users verify mask-wearing with cameras from their mobile devices. With facial recognition technology, Mask ID can verify faces wearing masks regardless of age and gender. Using machine-learning technology to learn the variety of all mask designs, sizes and colors on the market, we increased the mask recognition rate by 90%.