AI PPE detection for construction and industrial sites
Manual PPE checks cover a fraction of hours and areas. SafeKey watches every connected camera continuously and flags missing helmets, vests, harnesses and gloves as they happen.
Nobody plans to skip a harness
Almost no one walks past the PPE store intending to break a rule. Non-compliance creeps in through ordinary conditions: heat, fatigue, a five-minute task, a zone that feels familiar. At the morning briefing, compliance is close to total. By mid-afternoon, chinstraps hang loose, safety glasses sit on hat brims and harnesses stay clipped to the rack because the job will only take a minute.
Subcontractor churn makes it harder. New crews arrive every week, inducted to different standards by different employers, and the rules that feel obvious to your own people are brand new to them. In hot climates the physics work against you too. A harness over wet coveralls at 38 degrees is genuinely uncomfortable, and discomfort wins small battles all day long.
The arithmetic of supervision does not work either. One supervisor walking rounds covers each zone for a few minutes a day, and the gaps between rounds are exactly when standards slip. Night shifts and weekends run the same hazards with thinner oversight.
The most dangerous part is what happens next: nothing. Each unchallenged shortcut resets what normal looks like, and by the time an inspection or an incident exposes the gap, the site has drifted a long way from its own standard. Continuous monitoring exists to catch that drift on day one, not at the audit.
Zone-based PPE rules, not one blanket setting
PPE requirements on a real site are not uniform, and detection should not be either. SafeKey applies rules per zone, per camera: helmet and hi-vis vest across the whole site, safety harness inside work-at-height and lifting zones, gloves and eye protection at grinding and welding bays. A worker who is fully compliant in one zone is flagged the moment they step into another where the requirements change.
Rules are configured during scoping against your own risk assessments, then tuned on live footage over the first weeks. The same cameras also run person detection and restricted zone entry, so the places where PPE matters most, under suspended loads, near open edges, inside exclusion zones, get the closest watch. PPE is one part of a detection library spanning 40+ risk types, built on 60+ computer vision models.
Your existing CCTV becomes the sensor
PPE detection runs on the camera network you already operate. Any camera that provides an RTSP stream connects, which covers almost every installation of the last decade. There is no new hardware for standard deployments, no cabling programme and no shutdown: SafeKey takes a stream from each camera and the site keeps working.
Processing runs at the edge, on-premise or in a hybrid arrangement, depending on your data residency and IT requirements. Footage can stay on site, detection keeps running if the uplink drops, and the platform carries a long-standing ISO 27001 certification with GDPR and PDPA compliance built into how video is handled. No facial recognition is used: the system detects conditions, never identities.
When a detection fires, the alert reaches the right person in under a second through WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Telegram or email, following an escalation chain defined per site. A standard site is live within 24 hours of camera access, and because 60+ computer vision models sit behind the same streams, the cameras that start with PPE can grow into a wider monitoring programme without touching the hardware again.
Any RTSP camera works
If your CCTV produces an RTSP stream, it connects. No new cameras and no new cabling for standard deployments; existing coverage is reviewed during scoping.
Live within 24 hours
A standard site is operational within 24 hours of camera access, with PPE rules configured per zone against your risk register before the first alert goes out.
Edge, on-premise or hybrid
Choose where processing runs and where footage lives. Data residency requirements are met by design, backed by long-standing ISO 27001 certification and GDPR and PDPA compliance.
Alerts where your team works
WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Telegram and email, delivered in under a second, with per-site escalation chains so the right supervisor hears about the right zone.
Numbers from live deployments
The figures below come from customer sites, measured on real footage and reviewed with the safety teams who own the result.
Detections do more than trigger alerts. Every event is logged with a snapshot, zone and timestamp, so weekly toolbox talks run on evidence from your own site instead of generic slides. Supervisors see which zones and shifts drive non-compliance, corrective actions target the actual pattern, and the trend line shows whether they worked. At an HDB estate construction project in Singapore, that loop cut safety violations by 60%.
PPE detection, answered
Does PPE detection work on our existing CCTV?
Yes. SafeKey connects to any camera that provides an RTSP stream, which covers almost every modern CCTV installation. Standard deployments need no new cameras and no new cabling. We review your camera positions during scoping, and where a view is too distant or obstructed we tell you before anything is installed.
Which PPE types can it detect?
Helmets and hard hats, hi-vis vests, safety harnesses, gloves and eye protection, alongside person detection and restricted zone entry. Each detection is switched on per zone, so a lifting bay can require a harness while the general site requires helmet and vest. PPE detection is part of a library covering 40+ risk types.
How accurate is it?
Detection accuracy is 85%+ and verified on live site footage, not on benchmark datasets. During the first weeks each camera is tuned to its own angle, lighting and distance, and confidence thresholds are adjusted per zone. Accuracy is then reviewed with your team against real alerts, so the number is measured, not claimed.
Does it identify individual workers?
No. SafeKey detects conditions, not identities. It flags that a person in a zone is missing a harness; it does not establish who that person is. There is no facial recognition, and the system is designed to satisfy GDPR and PDPA requirements. Workforce trust matters as much as detection quality.
How fast are alerts?
Alerts reach your team in under a second from detection. Notifications go to WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, Telegram or email following the escalation chain you define per site, so a supervisor can respond while the worker is still in the zone rather than reading about it in a weekly report.
How long does deployment take?
A standard site is live within 24 hours of camera access. Scoping confirms camera coverage and the PPE rules per zone, the AI is configured against your risk register, and alerts start flowing the next day. Larger multi-site rollouts are phased, with each site following the same 24 hour pattern.
See PPE detection on your own cameras
A proof of concept on one zone or gate, live within 24 hours of camera access.