cN-Band

A lack of therapeutic solution for the SARS-CoV-2 has been causing a lot of trouble in the global supply chain. People are switching over to Personal protective Equipment (PPE) to avoid spreading the virus.

Social distancing is adopted as the major counter-measure in stopping the spread of the virus. We propose a wearable (PPE) which can be worn around the bicep via which we can detect the data of all the persons the individual has came into contact. This wearable also monitors the axillary temperature of the individual. 

This wearable continuously tracks all the COVID19 affected patients and even alerts the potential ones who came into contact with one of the positives by sending them a high alert notification. This helps to self-isolate themselves and stop the spreading of the virus. We aim that our proposed solution would be one of the major PPE device to deal this current pandemic.

Due to the increase in social distancing , personal protective equipment have been going out of stock and there has been quite some issues with the effectiveness of the gear because of which supply chain has taken a drastic hit which in turn resulted in high unemployment.

25 million people have lost their jobs due to the COVID19 pandemic according to the International Labour Organization and there will be around 35 million more people in working poverty around the world before the pandemic.

This problem could be solved by using our wearable gear as only a specific group of people are allowed to self-isolate themselves keeping the rest of the facility in-tact by not shutting it down. This way all businesses can be opened and safe social distancing norms can be maintained as well.

Solution addresses:

1. The social distancing of all the individuals in the workplace as well as outside by notifying them.
2. Monitoring the vitals especially , the temperature for any pre-symptoms of the virus.
3. Efficient tracking of all the patients diagnosed with COVID19.

The solution is a smart wearable device worn on the bicep.This wearable will continuously monitor the axillary temperature  of the individual and also will have a unique tag which will detect any other cN-Band within 6 feet which will notify the individual via an alarm.

The device will log all the tags of the people who come into contact with the cN-Band of an individual. If a person is tested positive for COVID19 his data log will reveal the people, he has come into contact and an alert notification will be sent to everyone to self-isolate themselves thus preserving the shutdown of the entire workplace.

The alerts are divided into three categories -mild, moderate and severe each of which will shown on the cN-Band via an LED making sure that people with severe risk are self-isolated. 

Here is the tech-stack

•  microprocessor
•  RFID tags, receivers and high gain antennas.
• Temperature Sensor
• Influx DB- for the database
• Grafana- For statistics monitoring 

25 million people have lost their jobs due to the COVID19 pandemic according to the International Labour Organization and there will be around 35 million more people in working poverty around the world before the pandemic.

Many were forced to work even though there weren't preventive measures which led to many positive cases. This solution will not only help them to get their jobs back but also make them less anxious while doing their work which will yield a better output. 

This solution helps in spreading the COVID19 at a larger scale. Using the above method, the industries which were fallen to a total shutdown can be re-opened again and will also help millions of workers who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. 

There is no single vaccine or medication to avoid the COVID virus but there can be preventive measures like social distancing which avoids the spreading of the virus and contains it.

To incorporate a safe social distancing practice, this wearable can be used, this device can easily track the patients and the history of the people they came into contact with which not only helps to take precaution measures but helps in containing the virus.

Also, this device is user-friendly as the only thing which the user needs to do is to charge the device from time to time as the monitoring and the alerts will be done in the backend. 

Till now, there is no such PPE equipment in the market which utilizes all the mentioned features.

Radio Frequencies are being used in many fields which has not only proven effective but due to it being cheap it is easier to build a smart device. This wearable device relies on the RF technology as it takes the tag values of the user and the individual near the user and uploads there values into the cloud database.

The alerts are divided into three categories -mild, moderate and high each of which will shown on the cN-Band via an LED making sure that people with high risk are self-isolated.

Making the device to be compact, cost effective and user friendly is very necessary so that that the PPE can be deployed into the market as quickly as possible.

Hardware Used : A micro-processor, RFID tags, omni-directional antenna, RFID receiver, a battery device, temperature sensor

Software Used: Influx DB, Python, Grafana, AWS IoT Greenhouse

Radio Frequencies are being used in many fields which has not only proven effective but due to it being cheap it is easier to build a smart device.

There has been many facilities were RF technology is used which has proven quite effective. Using Temperature sensors to monitor the axillary temperature continuously and analyzing it using some trained ML models can help in severe preventive measures in stopping of this virus. 

Fever is one of the main symptoms in the COVID19 followed by other flu symptoms. Using IoT and Machine Learning we can achieve our goal as the above mentioned technologies can be easily integrated with the sensors.

Given the lack of efficient PPE gear in the global supply chain, workers need a safe device which not only makes them feel less anxious while working but also helps in safe-guarding the environment. If cN-Band is worn by every worker then the COVID19 spreading can be easily contained and many countries who have been on an indefinite lockdown can lift it. This solution is easily expendable to other epidemics and pandemics.

Activities:

• Fever Tracking
• Real time Tracking on people affected by COVID19
• Immediate alerts for potentially sick people
• Data Analytics

Outputs

• People who are working in grocery stores can easily use this PPE gear with ease.
• Health Institutions can monitor the data of the people worn and warn them if they see any abnormalities.
• Every single person can use this cN-Band which will help in containing the virus.

Short Term Outcomes

• Preparing the government, health institutions by providing a an effective PPE gear.
• Citizens easily self-isolating themselves

In Long term, we aim to extend this specific technology in enabling smart healthcare systems in the developing countries.

This solution is currently in the initial prototype phase. The number of people this solution is serving is currently zero.

We aimed that this technology can be used as one of the key PPE gear in this global pandemic and other such future epidemics and are estimating to serve around 100,000 -150,000 in the first year and 500-750 million in the next 5 years.

The initial preparations required to make this device a prototype have been completed. In the next year, the focus will be to mass produce this PPE gear which will allow the workforce back into the facilities. Tuning the antenna to a precision with a range of only 6 feet is required and in the next coming months out our aim will be to make this range dynamic as well.

We aimed that this technology can be used as one of the key PPE gear in this global pandemic and other such future epidemics and are estimating to serve around a few thousands in the first year and few million to a billion in the next 5 years.

The main barrier which currently exists for us to accomplish the goal is funding. Some of the key challenges are-

• Tuning the antenna to work at specific ranges.
• Dealing with the ergonomic factor by making the PPE as compact as possible so that it doesn't cause any discomforts or hindrances while work
• Battery life is one of the important factors to be taken care.
• Legal challenges
• Marketing is also one of the challenge as there is a lot of competition in the sector.

We are currently building a team mainly specialists  in the technical, legal and the marketing sector who will help us via the key challenges.

• Antennas can be made omni directional so that they completely cover the 6 feet vicinity of the user
• As the wearable is compact, making it lightweight can help to reduce the ergonomic factors.
• Using a Li-Po rechargeable battery with a full charge output of 5-7 hours can cover the shift of the worker.

Currently there are two members in our solutions team. One is a full time worker other is a part- time member

I am a Master's student in Electrical and computer Engineering with a keen interest in embedded systems and deep learning. I have done a variety of projects in the domain. Solving environmental problems via embedded systems was always my cue as it motivates me highly to take up new challenges and SOLVE them.

Currently we are two people in the team. One from a technical background other being from non technical specializing in Applied Psychology.

The financial sustainability can come through grants and also a seed funding of $1,350,000 is required for my 60 month plan which will make cN-Band to scale.

This recent pandemic has disrupted the lives of the many. Our main motive in becoming a Solver is to ease the lives of these people by my innovative idea which will not only help them mentally but will also help in this financial crisis.

To reach the goals we seek partnerships from large scale industries, leaders from corporation and the government.

• To collaborate with advisors regarding the business model.
• Getting legal advise on distribution laws in the global market
• Connect to people in the health-care sector which will give a lead in marketings and promotions.

Some of the organizations I would like to partner up are-

• WHO
• Intel
• Sony
• NXP Semiconductors
• UN