BluEye anti COVID-19 Solution for social distancing
BLE social distancing – highlight
Why adopt Bluetooth LE technology for social distancing?
In order to understand how Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) contributes to the containment of the COVID-19 outbreak, it is necessary to clarify some terms: under the word social-distancing there are different methods to contain the virus spreading, to which correspond different solutions and Bluetooth LE architectures, having the common purpose of preventing the contagion or limiting its impact.
The needs for social distancing and safety are therefore divided into 3 levels:
Proximity alarm
The BLE system signals when two people do not respect the safety distance of at least 1 meter...
Indoor assembly
The BLE system monitors the concentration of people in a defined area (e.g. office, factory, transport)...
Contact tracing
The BLE system allows data collection for the traceability of only those people with whom a virus positive subject...Combining these 3 needs with BluEpyc‘s consolidated know-how on BLE, we developed BluEye, the organic system that meets the different needs of social distancing by mixing in a different way Beacon, EchoBeacon and Gateway.
At each requirement corresponds a different type of Bluetooth LE structure that contributes to the control and management of the epidemiological trend in the company, also building the basis for greater operational efficiency once the actual emergency is over.
How does the BluEye system work?
BluEye is the modular solution that, through different BLE architectures, covers the 3 levels of safety at work, by configuring the following components:
worn by the people; when two people do not respect the safety distance of at least 1 to 2 meters, Beacon indicate the dangerous proximity
Bluetooth signal repeater that collects data from the Beacon and broadcasts it to the Gateway, monitoring a defined area
Gateway receives data from EchoBeacons and transmits it to the host or cloud server.
The web-based middleware that manages the collected data, also providing location information of the Beacon’s current location and history, allowing to track its movement in the past and its contacts with other people.
Proximity alarm – social distancing
The BLE configurations that meet the requirements of the scenario are:
Configuration Beacon – smart phone
Person A, wearing a Beacon, approaches person B equipped with a smartphone (and vice versa); the App estimates the distance between the two persons and alerts them of any excessive proximity.
Configuration Beacon – Beacon
data exchange takes place between 2 Beacons, equipped with special and advanced firmware: Beacon A transmits watch-dog advertising (presence), received by Beacon B that is listening in precise timeframes. If the RSSI (Receive Signal Strenght Indicator) thresholds are exceeded, it transmits a proximity advertising alert to the employee’s smart phone and/or to the department manager. Beacon advanced edition with feedback (vibration/sound) and long battery life (1000 mA/h) are also available.
Indoor assemblies
BluEpyc has always developed its Real Time Locating System solutions based on the Zones concept by using the EchoBeacon device: the architecture is composed by Beacons associated with people and/or objects, by EchoBeacons, each one assigned to monitor a defined area, forwarding the Beacon data to the BLE Gateways which collect all this data and send it to the server (in Lan or Cloud) and optionally to BITS, Data Base Engine Software (the Middleware described below)
In order to respond to the current needs of COVID-19 containment and to act locally at the source of the contagion, avoiding aggregations, we have further enhanced the capabilities of the EchoBeacon, now able to operate in stand-alone mode, ideal to prevent indoor concentrations in small companies: offices, shops, transportation, etc.
In this case it is not necessary to install software and/or Host Server
The BluEye EchoBeacon special edition is now able to interact with contact tracing apps in different countries, including Immuni in Italy: specifically, the device intercepts and manages the Exposure Notification Service, the digital contact tracing protocol standardized by Bluetooth SIG and made available by Google and Apple agreement.
So the EchoBeacon works with all national Apps based on this technology and is, therefore, able to detect Beacons, smartphones contact tracing apps.
This feature doesn’t interfere with government contact tracing apps and operates in a completely anonymous way in respect of privacy, opening new scenarios for assembly control in tourism, transport and retail.
How does EchoBeacon work?
In each EchoBeacon are set, through the provided App, several parameters, including: the size of the area (RSSI filter & Kalman filter), the timeframe and the number of Persons/Beacons allowed to be in the area in the same time; if these parameters are exceeded, the relay connected to an optical/acoustic alarm is activated in real-time.
In addition, the EchoBeacon can signal, through a differentiated warning, the proximity between two special Beacons, described previously: the result is a consistent and interchangeable ecosystem, with the plug&play EchoBeacon as a fulcrum, able to avoid the proximity danger and the assembly one
Social Distancing with BluEpyc Stand Alone BLE EchoBeacon for Zone Alarm People Assemblies
Contact tracing
The BluEye platform, which is both scalable and consistent, also meets the need for contact tracing, going back retroactively on the people who have come in contact with a positive subject in the past, thanks to specific queries on the historic data stored in the BITS databases.
In addition, it is possible to obtain centralized alerts which, in case of a concentration in a certain area, transmits a warning message on mobile devices.
The Zone RTLS data acquisition process is able to locate people (Beacons) and locate them in a specific indoor area (EchoBeacon), and through the Gateways transmit them to the BITS – BLE Item Tracking System
How does BITS work?
BITS is the Web Based Middleware composed by the data management engine that allows to know the last detected position of the Beacons and their historical position (BITS Data Base Engine) and by BITS Manager, the GUI (Graphic User Interface) application interface that gives a graphical meaning to the data and allows its analysis (query) in standard browser; the two parts can be implemented also separately.
BluEye’s Edge Computing architecture (Beacon, EchoBeacon and Gateway) selects the useful data, discarding the superfluous ones and lightening the data flow.
BITS (BLE Item Tracking System) modules:
BITS Engine
Differentiates between static data (e.g. charts, Beacon association to the item or person, EchoBeacon assignation to a certain area, etc.) and dynamic data (e.g. location, i.e. when the person/object moves from one area to another and historical data),
BITS Service
Applies data filters that clean and store them in the Data Base through Web Services (Microsoft IIS Platform), allowing the traceability of past events.
BITS Manager
The data are displayed via the graphical user interface (GUI) in standard browser and from now it can be managed.
The value of BITS is to improve the quality of the data collected by the Bluetooth LE, filtering them on several levels, to return only the useful data for the item’s localization, then creating, according to the project, the expected event (location-based service: e.g. alarm, action, door closure/opening…).
What’s BluEye’s result? Technology & Concept
The main feature of BluEye is its ability not only to respond to different type of social distancing (3 levels), but above all to take action before the contagion occurs: all this with a single platform, branched in different configurations.
The hardware/firmware and middleware platform is characterized by its flexibility, since its components Beacon, EchoBeacon and Gateway are interchangeable: the BluEye components connect to each other in different configurations, which correspond to different degrees of social distancing of the Bluetooth LE, as well as different installation methods, times and costs.
BluEye platform uses different types of Beacon, according to the project needs; among the advanced ones, the Beacon Wake-Up based on the Bluetooth release 5.1; thanks to the setting flexibility, it can transmit several information, including Watch Dog (to report its presence in the area), Key Button (to voluntarily report an event), Accelerometer Sensor (motion detection and/or operator fall).
In other words, BluEye is a consistent system because its hardware/firmware can be broken down into different functions and reassembled in different ways, building the basis for greater operational efficiency once the actual emergency is over.