Social distancing tracker

Inspiration

The social distancing of 6 feet apart is one of the recommended guidances by CDC to avoid exposure of COVID-19. However, When I go to my store to get groceries, I see that a 6 feet guidance is not easy to follow because no one carries a tool to measure distances between individuals.

There are also other activities that people are still doing to stay healthy such as taking a walk or jogging. During those activities, people need to keep the recommended distance to reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure.

The application my team is building will help people maintain that recommended distance.

What it does

The application recognizes that people are within 6 feet apart. It vibrates when that guidance is violated which is a signal to a user to move away to a safer distance (>6 feet).

The application maintains a score which is an indication of how exposed the individual has been. The initial value starts at 1000. It decrements upon any 6 feet violation. The lost score value is regained after 2 weeks. The higher the score is, the least exposed the person is and vice versa.

How I built it

The application on the phone leverages its Bluetooth to recognize other nearby phones. Each person's phone is identified by a unique identifier that is continuously transmitted when the application is enabled. If the application receives that signal and determines that the sender is within 6 feet, the phone vibrates and the score is decremented.

Challenges I ran into

The application requires to be downloaded by basically everyone to be able to know who is around.
6 feet guidance is in thin air, in places like the grocery store aisle, there might be a wall or an obstacle where 6 feet is not required, in this instance this application would create false positives.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

What I learned

COVID-19 spreads easily. To limit exposure and infecting others, people need to follow the recommended guidelines from CDC. It is not easy to follow all the guidelines without help, and only a joint effort will eradicate this pandemic.