A survey of automatic contact tracing approaches using bluetooth low energy

To combat the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, many new ways have been proposed on how to automate the process of finding infected people, also called contact tracing. A special focus was put on preserving the privacy of users. Bluetooth Low Energy as base technology has the most promising properties, so this survey focuses on automated contact tracing techniques using Bluetooth Low Energy. We define multiple classes of methods and identify two major groups: systems that rely on a server for finding new infections and systems that distribute this process. Existing approaches are systematically classified regarding security and privacy criteria.Copyright © 2021 ACM.

COVID bell - A smart doorbell solution for prevention of COVID-19

The article introduces a novel strategy for efficiently mitigating COVID-19 distribution at the local level due to contact with any surfaces. Our project aims to be a critical safety shield for the general people in the fight against the epidemic. An ultrasonic sensor is integrated with the automated doorbell system to ring the doorbell with a hand motion. A temperature sensor Mlx90614 is also included in the system, which records the temperature of the person standing in front of the door. The device also includes a camera module that captures the image of the person standing at the front entrance. The captured image is processed through an ML model which runs at over 30 fps to detect whether or not the person is wearing a mask. The image and the temperature of the person standing outside are sent to the owner through the configured iOS application. If the person outside is wearing a mask, one can open the door through the app itself and permit the entry of the person standing outside thereby integrating the edge device with an app for a better user experience. The system helps in reducing physical contact, and the results obtained are at par with the already existing solutions and provide a few advantages over them. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter.

Interpersonal Distance Tracking with mmWave Radar and IMUs

Tracking interpersonal distances is essential for real-time social distancing management and ex-post contact tracing to prevent spreads of contagious diseases. Bluetooth neighbor discovery has been employed for such purposes in combating COVID-19, but does not provide satisfactory spatiotemporal resolutions. This paper presents ImmTrack, a system that uses a millimeter wave radar and exploits the inertial measurement data from user-carried smartphones or wearables to track interpersonal distances. By matching the movement traces reconstructed from the radar and inertial data, the pseudo identities of the inertial data can be transferred to the radar sensing results in the global coordinate system. The re-identified, radar-sensed movement trajectories are then used to track interpersonal distances. In a broader sense, ImmTrack is the first system that fuses data from millimeter wave radar and inertial measurement units for simultaneous user tracking and re-identification. Evaluation with up to 27 people in various indoor/outdoor environments shows ImmTrack's decimeters-seconds spatiotemporal accuracy in contact tracing, which is similar to that of the privacy-intrusive camera surveillance and significantly outperforms the Bluetooth neighbor discovery approach. © 2023 Owner/Author.

Use of Bluetooth contact tracing technology to model COVID-19 quarantine policies in high-risk closed populations.

Containment measures in high-risk closed settings, like migrant worker (MW) dormitories, are critical for mitigating emerging infectious disease outbreaks and protecting potentially vulnerable populations in outbreaks such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The direct impact of social distancing measures can be assessed through wearable contact tracing devices. Here, we developed an individual-based model using data collected through a Bluetooth wearable device that collected 33.6M and 52.8M contact events in two dormitories in Singapore, one apartment style and the other a barrack style, to assess the impact of measures to reduce the social contact of cases and their contacts. The simulation of highly detailed contact networks accounts for different infrastructural levels, including room, floor, block, and dormitory, and intensity in terms of being regular or transient. Via a branching process model, we then simulated outbreaks that matched the prevalence during the COVID-19 outbreak in the two dormitories and explored alternative scenarios for control. We found that strict isolation of all cases and quarantine of all contacts would lead to very low prevalence but that quarantining only regular contacts would lead to only marginally higher prevalence but substantially fewer total man-hours lost in quarantine. Reducing the density of contacts by 30% through the construction of additional dormitories was modelled to reduce the prevalence by 14 and 9% under smaller and larger outbreaks, respectively. Wearable contact tracing devices may be used not just for contact tracing efforts but also to inform alternative containment measures in high-risk closed settings.

Blockchain-enabled COVID-19 Contact Tracing Solutions

In light of the fast-spreading number of COVID-19 cases worldwide, contact tracing proved to be an effective measure to slow down the infection rate and mitigate the casualties caused by this virus. However, because of several concerns in terms of privacy, as well as security, several countries and their population around the globe are reluctant to adopt contact tracing solutions to contain the spread of the virus. Because of its distributed, public, and auditable nature, blockchain can be a groundbreaking solution contact tracing, given that it would provide a privacy-oriented contact tracing solution. Therefore, in this chapter, we discuss and compare the two alternatives proposed by the BeepTrace framework, active and passive, and also present some initial results based on an early implementation of it. As it can be seen, by utilizing blockchain together with contact tracing, user privacy, security, and decentralization can be guaranteed, giving back the trust needed for these applications to work. © 2022 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.

Design of a wearable device for respiratory rate monitoring and detection of anomalous values

The main causes of death in the world are cardiovascular diseases, strokes and respiratory diseases, among which the following stand out: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and respiratory system infections. Regarding pulmonary function measurement technology, spirometry is the reference standard for the diagnosis and evaluation. This test requires specialized equipment that does not allow it to be performed on an outpatient basis or for constant monitoring. For this reason, the doctor must systematically look for the presence of symptoms that may go unnoticed by the patient and that can be attributed to age, sedentary lifestyle, or the fact of smoking. This is why it would be important to be able to constantly monitor breathing in order to identify irregularities in breathing rates that could be indicative of a respiratory condition.The solution proposed in this article is focused on the design of a prototype of a wearable device that allows the monitoring of the respiratory rate. For this prototype feasibility is analyzed using signals from a database. This device will allow this biometric variable to be identified and will notify when it is outside the normal ranges to suggest an airflow test (spirometry) at a possible early stage of a respiratory condition. This instrumentation system will be integrated into the frame of a pair of glasses, specifically positioning the sensor on the nasal platelets.

A Smart Social Distance Monitoring System

The entire world is affected by Covid-19 pandemic. One of the major reasons is that it is contagious and a minimum distance should be maintained to stay safe. Social distancing might be a difficult task to implement effectively. Social distancing plays a pivotal role in curbing diseases that are contagious like Covid-19.Now that situations are returning to normal, the risk of getting infected is still high. Governments are deciding to ease lockdown regulations, as part of the unlocking public places, workspaces and educational institutions started to resume their activities. Considering the current scenario, the public has to strictly follow all the necessary Covid-19 protocols to reduce the spike in the number of Covid cases. This project aims to develop a prototype device that helps in implementing social distancing using Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) wireless technology based solution. Prototype issues an alert signal when the distance between individuals is less than the prescribed threshold distance. If the protocol is breached, the user is alarmed through an LED. UWB is known for its advantages as it has greater signal strength compared to Bluetooth. The design of the prototype enables implementation as wearable such as an ID card. © 2022 IEEE.

Improvement of Trajectory Errors on Remote- Controlled Differential Drive Robot via Mobilebased GUI through Bluetooth Connection

There has been an increase of interest and demand in the usage of logistic indoor service robots that are designed to minimize interactions between humans due to the occurrence of the COVID-19 outbreak. The application of the rising technology in the medical sector has great benefits in the industry, such as the prevention of the spread of highly infectious diseases using distance as a factor. Rooting from the purpose of the said robot, the main focus should be the ease of navigation through achieving the desired trajectory, in order to maximize the functionality, prevent collision, reduce user maneuvering difficulties, and such. Hence, this paper is focused on improving the trajectory errors on the robot navigation performance based on different control system designs specifically, a physical joystick controller and a mobile-based Bluetooth application controller. The design of the joystick is based on a pivot as its base which is directed to all angles and the design of the Bluetooth app is based on fourdirectional buttons that will operate upon clicking, and switching to other buttons to change commands. With this, the researchers conducted linear path and rotational tests using both remote control modes that are based on five varying speed values of 0.75 m/s, 0.5m/s, 0.35m/s, 0.25m/s, and 0.15 m/s. Based on the data analysis, the yielded results showed that using the Bluetooth app lowers the robot's trajectory error by 50% to 60% compared to using ajoystick to navigate to the desired point. Thus, the researchers concluded that the design of a control system greatly affects the robot navigation in achieving the desired trajectory. Considering the nonsystematic errors, a calibration based on the hardware structure design specifically on the caster wheel is recommended. © 2023 IEEE.

Chameleon Browser for Public Device Operation

Due to the spread of COVID-19, people are starting to be more aware and careful when touching any devices in public. To reduce physical contact with public devices, we have developed a method that enables users to interact with many kinds of public devices using the browser on their smartphones. This method is called Chameleon because it resembles the ability of the animal chameleon to change its color according to its surrounding environment. We have developed the prototype system to confirm the mechanism of Chameleon. Then, we have applied the Chameleon method to two practical systems in the campus of Nagasaki University that is expected to be used by multiple users. These two systems are a Certificate Issuance System for students and a Digital Signage System, that provides directions to campus visitors. Through these experiences, we confirmed the availability of the Chameleon method as the new type of the browser included not only Web server browsing functions but also public device operation functions.

Covid-19 Vest for Social distancing and Monitoring

In recent years, due to the rise in the number of novel coronaviruses across the globe nations step forward to stop the crisis. With guidelines of the WHO many methodologies came into existence to prevent the spreading of coronavirus. My SD: A Smart Social distance and Monitoring System takes advantage of the features of the smartphone's hardware which usually has Bluetooth transmitter-receiver, like GPS to determine the safe distance and required level of compliance. Through artificial intelligence, this new smart device helps maintain uniform social distance and detect COVID 19 patients. In these COVID 19 environments, everyone knows how safe they are. In this paper, we have automated the process whereby the layman can control himself without any priming which makes the system more user-friendly for the public. The user himself or herself can monitor body temperature, social distancing and get an alert in abnormal selfisolation conditions using contactless thermometer, ultrasonic sensors, and GSM modules. © 2022 IEEE.

A Close Contact Tracing Method Based on Bluetooth Signals Applicable to Ship Environments

There are still outbreaks of COVID-19 across the world. Ships increase the risk of worldwide transmission of the virus. Close contact tracing remains as an effective method of reducing the risk of virus transmission. Therefore, close contact tracing in ship environments becomes a research topic. Exposure Notifications API (Application Programming Interface) can be used to determine the encountered location points of close contacts on ships. Location points of close contact are estimated by the encountered location points. Risky areas in ships can be calculated based on the encountered location points. The tracking of close contacts is possible with Bluetooth technology without the Internet. The Bluetooth signal can be used to judge the proximity among detecting devices by using the feature that Bluetooth has a strong signal at close range. This Bluetooth feature makes it possible to trace close contacts in ship environments. In this paper, we propose a method for close contact tracing and showing the risky area in a ship environment by combining beacon and Exposure Notification API using Bluetooth technology. This method does not require an Internet connection for tracing close contacts and can protect the personal information of close contacts. Copyright © 2023 KSII.

An IoT Based Smart Vault Security and Monitoring System with Zero UI

Recent advances have introduced IoT as one of the key technologies globally. As safety remains a critical issue for those who spend much time outside. Automated security systems are very useful where safety is an important issue. With a prospect of a Zero User Interface (UI) model this work represents a novel IoT based smart vault security system. The system is built and designed based on IoT combining with Arduino-Uno and Bluetooth module. This system involves LDR sensor, IR sensor and Sonar sensor for monitoring. The vault provides security on three levels. Password protected entry to connect with the smartphone using Bluetooth module, IR sensor array to use 'secret gesture pattern' to unlock the door, tracking number of transactions from the vault using Sonar sensor and LDR was used as a switch. To avoid the replication of physical unlocking of objects IR sensor array was used to introduce 'secret gesture pattern' unlocking system through touchless interfaces for the avoidance of transmissive diseases like COVID-19. This novel system has substantial possibility as a security vault system for industrial and residential use in a contactless manner. © 2023 IEEE.

Quarantine in Motion: A Graph Learning Framework to Reduce Disease Transmission Without Lockdown

Exposure notification applications are developed to increase the scale and speed of disease contact tracing. Indeed, by taking advantage of Bluetooth technology, they track the infected population's mobility and then inform close contacts to get tested. In this paper, we ask whether these applications can extend from reactive to preemptive risk management tools? To this end, we propose a new framework that utilizes graph neural networks (GNN) and real-world Foursquare mobility data to predict high risk locations on an hourly basis. As a proof of concept, we then simulate a risk-informed Foursquare population of over 36,000 people in Austin TX after the peak of an outbreak. We find that even after 50% of the population has been infected with COVID-19, they can still maintain their mobility, while reducing the new infections by 13%. Consequently, these results are a first step towards achieving what we call Quarantine in Motion. © 2022 IEEE.

Implementation of a Hardware-Assisted Bluetooth-Based COVID-19 Tracking Device in a High School: Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: Contact tracing is a vital public health tool used to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. However, traditional interview-format contact tracing (TCT) is labor-intensive and time-consuming and may be unsustainable for large-scale pandemics such as COVID-19. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to address the limitations of TCT. The Yale School of Engineering developed a Hardware-Assisted Bluetooth-based Infection Tracking (HABIT) device. Following the successful implementation of HABIT in a university setting, this study sought to evaluate the performance and implementation of HABIT in a high school setting using an embedded mixed methods design. METHODS: In this pilot implementation study, we first assessed the performance of HABIT using mock case simulations in which we compared contact tracing data collected from mock case interviews (TCT) versus Bluetooth devices (HABIT). For each method, we compared the number of close contacts identified and identification of unique contacts. We then conducted an embedded mixed methods evaluation of the implementation outcomes of HABIT devices using pre- and postimplementation quantitative surveys and qualitative focus group discussions with users and implementers according to the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance framework. RESULTS: In total, 17 students and staff completed mock case simulations in which 161 close contact interactions were detected by interview or Bluetooth devices. We detected significant differences in the number of close contacts detected by interview versus Bluetooth devices (P<.001), with most (127/161, 78.9%) contacts being reported by interview only. However, a significant number (26/161, 16.1%; P<.001) of contacts were uniquely identified by Bluetooth devices. The interface, ease of use, coherence, and appropriateness were highly rated by both faculty and students. HABIT provided emotional security to users. However, the prototype design and technical difficulties presented barriers to the uptake and sustained use of HABIT. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of HABIT in a high school was impeded by technical difficulties leading to decreased engagement and adherence. Nonetheless, HABIT identified a significant number of unique contacts not reported by interview, indicating that electronic technologies may augment traditional contact tracing once user preferences are accommodated and technical glitches are overcome. Participants indicated a high degree of acceptance, citing emotional reassurance and a sense of security with the device.

Design and Fabrication of Remotely Controlled Ultraviolet Disinfectant Robot

In this project we are creating a prototype of disinfectant robot using application such as Ultra Violet-C Ray, Android Bluetooth and Arduino Nano. During this Covid-19 pandemic which has become a major threat to human life, application such as disinfectant robot is being very useful. This disinfectant robot can be use in multiple application and place such as hospital, hotel, movie theatre, shopping mall, office, other work area, etc. This application is majorly used on non-living material instead of liquid medium which has a chance of damaging electronic application. The robot helps in less human contact which help in less spread of infection. Efficiency of this disinfectant robot is 99.9% killing of Bacteria and Virus. © 2023 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.

Pair-Less Bluetooth for Touchless Interaction

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the need for touchless interactions with technology in public spaces. By leveraging mobile phones which are equipped with Bluetooth wireless transmitters, we enable touchless and app-less interactions between people and technology. The Bluetooth signal broadcast from everyday devices such as smart phones is used by Bluetooth receivers, such as wireless earbuds, to pair the devices and communicate data. In this work, on the other hand, the broadcasted Bluetooth signal is detected, along with any change in the signal caused by rotating one's phone or waving one's hand by the phone. These intentional gestures with one's phone in the presence of an equipped Bluetooth receiver are interpreted as 'words' of a communication language. Without the need to pair devices or download any software, the communication language enables touchless interactions between a user holding a phone and a computing system in a public space © 2023 IEEE.

Embedded Student Board for Digitalization of Engineering Education

Hands-on practice laboratory experience is an essential component for effective engineering education. Thanks to the recent technological advancement, remote and virtual laboratories are becoming more and more popular. The study presented in the current paper is focused on developing a student board that can be used by both teachers and students in the education process. For this board, several PSoC™ 6 applications have been developed, to provide students hands-on experience with various electronic basic concepts, which they can later practice by developing their own applications. Although many applications can be demonstrated using this board, in this paper the design and development of two practical applications is presented - LabVIEW Control of RGB Led Intensity and Signal Generation and Acquisition with LabVIEW Display. Those two applications are both using the PSoC 6 microcontroller and were prototyped on the NI ELVIS II device. The developed board has the main advantage of being an inexpensive mixed signal platform to teach important concepts in electronics embedded system laboratories, and it will suit well the educational needs of the post-COVID era. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Investigating Bluetooth Low Energy Advertisements in Urban Public Space for Street-level Crowd Density Sensing

Technologies for sensing crowd density have a potential to make our society smarter, and such technologies have been used to help social distancing in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. We have developed a method to sense and forecast street-level crowd density by observing public Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertisements from popular contact tracing applications in Japan. We have deployed our methods in several locations in Tokyo and published the estimated street-level crowd density level on our website as well as a television program. In this paper, we report the status of our project, focusing on the result of experiments to verify the potential of our method after the contact tracing applications stop working. Through an experiment in an urban public space in Tokyo, we have shown that BLE advertisements are almost occupied with contact tracing applications and manufacture specific data from a few companies. In addition, by monitoring different types of BLE advertisements in several locations in Japan, we have clarified that those containing manufacture specific data with a certain company identifier have almost the same trend as those from contact tracing applications, with the average correlation coefficient of 0.990. © 2022 TRON Forum.

COVID-19 Contact Tracing Using Low Calibrated Transmission Power from BLE—Approach and Algorithm Experimentation

Within a short period of time, the highly infectious COVID-19 virus has progressed into a pandemic which has forced countries to develop contact tracing solutions for closer monitoring of its further spread into the society. Bluetooth low energy (BLE) has been extensively adopted to implement contact tracing focusing mainly on utilizing received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for its distance estimation toward close contact identification (CCI). Nevertheless, when observed closely, many of these solutions were not able to accurately carry out the contact tracing as required by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention. The provisions set were distance of within 6-ft (~ 2 m) and period of no less than 15 min for close contact identification. This is mainly because usage of RSSI is highly unstable and volatile. In closing the gap, we proposed a novel approach that utilizes low calibrated transmission power (Tx) employing nRF52832 BLE chipset as wearables, in which, at a distance of greater than 2 m, no close contact will be detected making the accuracy to high and low error distance estimation under ideal condition. Algorithm in establishing close contacts is also demonstrated with complete experimentation. Results show that our proposed solution has maximum error of 0.3209 m in distance estimation of 2 m and 71.43% accuracy in CCI with 4 devices and distance of 2 ± 0.3 m consideration. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

SMART IOT SCANNER FOR COVID-19 CONTACT TRACING

The smart IoT scanner for covid-19 contact tracing project was proposed and developed to help increasing the efficiency of the contact tracing process during the covid-19 virus pandemic. As of 15th January 2021, Malaysia has recoded 151066 cases and 586 deaths [1]. The aim of this project is to develop a smart IoT scanner for covid-19 contact tracing by scanning telecommunication signal to break the chain of covid-19 virus transmission. This project digitalized the conventional contact tracing by scanning BLE beacons transmitted by any proximity devices. A custom hardware is developed in this project with the ability to advertise an anonymous ID and scanning other devices for the contact tracing purpose. BLE has been choose as the medium of communication between devices as it consumes low power. All the recorded data can be analysed by the software for the data matching and contact tracing purpose. This method reduces the time to interview covid-19 patient and find the contact by simplifying into a single click method. As the results, this project achieved 72.62% of detection rate between the devices and the average response time between each scan was recorded for 4 seconds. The distance accuracy test between the device shows that the accuracy up to 98.08% can be achieved from this system. © School of Engineering, Taylor's University.