Exploring convolutional neural networks and spatial video for on-the-ground mapping in informal settlements.

Journal: International journal of health geographics
Published Date:

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The health burden in developing world informal settlements often coincides with a lack of spatial data that could be used to guide intervention strategies. Spatial video (SV) has proven to be a useful tool to collect environmental and social data at a granular scale, though the effort required to turn these spatially encoded video frames into maps limits sustainability and scalability. In this paper we explore the use of convolution neural networks (CNN) to solve this problem by automatically identifying disease related environmental risks in a series of SV collected from Haiti. Our objective is to determine the potential of machine learning in health risk mapping for these environments by assessing the challenges faced in adequately training the required classification models.

Authors

  • Jayakrishnan Ajayakumar
    Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA. jxa421@case.edu.
  • Andrew J Curtis
    Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA.
  • Vanessa Rouzier
    Les Centres Haitian Group for the Study of Kaposi's Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections (GHESKIO), Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
  • Jean William Pape
    Les Centres Haitian Group for the Study of Kaposi's Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections (GHESKIO), Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
  • Sandra Bempah
    Department of Geography, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA.
  • Meer Taifur Alam
    Emerging Pathogens Institute and Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32601, USA.
  • Md Mahbubul Alam
    Emerging Pathogens Institute and Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32601, USA.
  • Mohammed H Rashid
    Emerging Pathogens Institute and Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32601, USA.
  • Afsar Ali
    Emerging Pathogens Institute and Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32601, USA.
  • John Glenn Morris
    Emerging Pathogens Institute and Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32601, USA.