Social Distancing AR

Visualization on the ground
Stay safe in line
Keep you and our friends healthy

Inspiration

In this time of crisis we have all been presented with a specific set of rules to slow the Coronavirus. Seeing our community struggle with these rules presented us with an opportunity to use Augmented Reality to create a solution.

Augmented Reality is the perfect visualization tool. AR can provide spatial information fast and accurately. So we did what we do best. We got to work on a solution.

With this is mind, Social Distancing AR emerged as our pilot prototype. Social Distancing AR is designed to help people understand the recommended safe interaction distance as mandated by the CDC. We believe that after the ban is lifted, people will still have to maintain a safe distance to prevent a resurgence of the Coronavirus.

Social Distancing AR is the first effort in a suite of tools designed to help our community using augmented reality.

What it does

Social Distancing AR uses the augmented reality capabilities of mobile phones to help users visualize and maintain safe social distance when interacting with others. With repeated use, we hope to educate the community to a point in which the safe social distance of 6ft becomes second nature.

How we built it

We built it in Unity using AR Foundation so that it could be easily exported to Android and iOS. We use the point cloud to pin the circle on the ground below the user. The circle can then move with the user on the ground accurately as they walk around.

Challenges we ran into

Our biggest challenge involved creating an accurate representation of distance. We didn't have it pin to the ground using a point cloud at first. Our guides appeared approximately 4ft below the camera. We thought that this would give more flexibility if the camera couldn't pick up the ground. That proved to be quite inaccurate since people of different heights had quite different views. We ended up using both so that it would be as accurate as possible, but have a backup when visual conditions were not optimal.

Accomplishments that we are proud of

We didn't know how accurate it would be, but we were able to get it very close to 6ft! We made it a little larger to be on the safe side, but it is always +-2 inches. We also were able to make it look cool so that it doesn't have to be a boring task. If we can gamify social distancing, people will be more willing and remember to do it.

What we learned

AR is in high demand and can be a great tool to give people visual information quickly.

What's next for Social Distancing AR

This is the first tool in a suite of tools that we think are necessary to easily help people stay safe. Additional rollouts include:

Heat Maps We want to also build a geolocation heat map of where people are so that people do not go to overcrowded areas as an expansion to this application.

Face and Body Detection Utilizing face or body detection will allow us to send audio cues to the user alerting them if someone is too close. This could be useful when conferences and large gatherings start again.