X-Fidence: Post-Pandemic Wellness By Density Monitoring with Privacy Preservation

ABSTRACT

There is an increasing interest in crowd monitoring as we return to normal life after the Covid-19 pandemic. Some major obstacles to implementing a monitoring system are privacy, scalability, and accuracy. Several entities have developed their own branded safety reassurance programs using the Internet of Things and sensors during the pandemic, and many cities are planning for the post-pandemic era. However, the lack of inclusiveness and the fear of personal information leakage often limit their usage. To this end, we developed X-Fidence, a real-time density monitoring system to avoid crowds which preserves user privacy. X-Fidence anonymously tracks visitors in certain places using Bluetooth technology. The system consists of a signal receiver module, a mobile application, and a monitoring server where the citywide current occupancy data syncs automatically. The mobile application provides density data in real-time and average historic crowds information that helps to make decisions more confidently. The X-Fidence mobile app warns residents if any area experiences more visitors than maximum safe capacity. We also present our results from an experiment to measure the feasibility and accuracy of the system. © 2022 IEEE.