Noq-app

NoQ helps in reducing the risk of infection both in stores and in queues outside by using virtual queuing system

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Team Dejaavu has developed a web-app called NoQ for the Hackathon ‘Crack the Covid-19 Crisis’. During this Covid-19 Pandemic, it is advised to avoid gatherings and avoid contacting with people as it can lead to an increase in spread of the disease. The government only allowed shops which sold essential commodities to remain open for a certain number of hours throughout the day. People followed social distancing when they went for essential commodities shopping, this led to long waiting lines outside the shops. The long lines meant longer waiting period and thus the customers had to wait outside with a large number of people thus increasing the risk of contracting the virus. It also led to discomfort among customers, and difficulty in managing these lines when multiple such shops were close by or had limited space outside their shops. NoQ app – ‘Say No to Queues’ developed by team Dejaavu solves this problem of gathering in queues. NoQ app is a Progressive Web App made using Flask framework. Customers are given a provision to book a slot in the available slots for a shop. When booked, the customers receive an auto-generated message of confirmation using Twilio API. This message acts as a ticket to enter the shop. Each slot is decided to have timings and maximum number of people according to the size of the shop, this helps avoid overcrowding. The customers are shown the inventory of items available in each shop, which is filled in by the shopkeeper. Another benefit of NoQ app is that, we can keep a track of the people that were in the shop at a specific time, this helps to find the spread of the virus if found that a person was a carrier of the virus, thus tracking the possible affected people becomes easy. An alternative solution to implement social distancing is doorstep delivery which will reduce the no of people gathering at places like shop fronts. However, doorstep delivery is not feasible looking at the current scenario. Migrant workers returning to their villages and towns has led to a reduce in logistic manpower required as delivery people. Also, people are scared of taking delivery jobs due to the fear of contacting an unknown infected person. The solution provided by us is also very feasible and easy to implement. Further no-q can be extended to all kinds of shops and also in different sectors.

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