Contactless Infant Height Measurement for Enhanced Early Detection of Stunting Using Computer Vision Techniques

Abstract

Stunting, a critical health issue affecting child growth and development, is prevalent in developing countries and is characterized by significantly reduced height for age. Traditional height measurement methods often require physical contact, which can lead to measurement inaccuracies and potential discomfort for infants. This study introduces a contactless method for measuring infant height using advanced computer vision techniques and the MediaPipe Pose library. By detecting key body points and applying Euclidean distance calculations, the proposed approach offers precise height estimation. Validation uses baby dolls (38 cm and 49 cm) and real infants (n =12) under varying body postures and lighting conditions. A fixed-size green mat (100 cm) was used as a reference for converting pixel distances into actual measurements. The method achieved an average accuracy of 99.76% for the 38 cm doll and 99.67% for the 49 cm doll. For real infants, the system demonstrated an average accuracy of 98.48%. This confirms that the system performs effectively in measuring infant height, even under conditions of non-ideal body posture. Furthermore, these results suggest that the proposed system is an effective and practical alternative for infant height measurements, supporting the early detection of stunting in diverse real-world settings.