Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT


A social distancing solution for workplaces

29 July 2020 Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT

As South Africa gradually eases lockdown to resuscitate the economy after a hard lockdown that lasted for more than 10 weeks, there is a need to facilitate people returning to work safely.

Apart from the standard procedure of wearing a mask, social distancing and regularly sanitising – Geniatech XterConnect is offering an easy-to-deploy IoT solution that will help employees further prevent the risk of COVID-19 transmission in workplaces.

The social distancing solution is fully scalable, wireless, easily deployable, and cost-effective. The evolutionary system includes a wireless communication device (or tag) that:

• Enables detection and location services.

• Enables proximity detection and geo-location.

• Includes a temperature sensor.

The private network gateway enables device communication that delivers device data to the cloud. The system also includes:

• An LBS cloud application.

• All device and network management.

• Configuration and monitoring.

• Floor-plan mapping, zone setting and more.

• Real-time alerts and notifications.

• Full admin control and scalability.

This is how the social distancing solution works: ‘Anchors’ are placed in the building for monitoring and used to locate badges; without an anchor, a badge can only detect a nearby badge without positioning. At low density, the anchor defines an area and at higher density the anchors allow triangulation and therefore geolocation.

‘Badges’ are wearable objects that geofence the owner. They use the same hardware as the anchors but with different software and a buzzer. A badge passing near an anchor sends information to the server via the gateway.

The server receives the information from each badge and stores it. A message is only sent on a change of zone (so change of anchor). If one badge crosses another and if the RRSI is above the threshold (configurable via downlink), the badge makes a sound and a message is sent to the server. A proximity alert between people is also recorded in the LBS application server.

The sensitivity of the badge can be remotely adjustable (RSSI threshold), and the data is available for analysis (example: a badge crossing another badge).

The best thing about this easy-to-deploy IoT solution is that it is reusable in:

• Warehouse management.

• Asset management.

• Asset tracking and data monitoring.

• Workforce and workflow tracking.

• Alert and notification delivery in-app/SMS/email.

• Administration tools and deployment.

• Supporting various geolocation technologies.

• Rest APIs.

• Deployment on public or private cloud and on-premise.

The solution thus provides long-term value and return on investment post-COVID.

With the rising number of cases every day, and South Africa quickly reaching its infection rate peak, there has never been a better time to enforce further preventive measures in industries that cannot work remotely.


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