Gadgets
Bluetooth chips are used by Tech companies to detect coronavirus interaction in office
Technology companies are developing their own contact tracing systems in their offices to prevent coronavirus outbreaks, as countries start to facilitate lock-down measures and the return to work is possible.
Silicon Valley company Juniper Networks Inc plans to equip its approximately 10,000 employees with a Bluetooth chip to record the movements and interactions of employees in their office, company vice presidente Jeff Aaron said.
The system uses Wi-Fi routers and Juniper Network access points to communicate on badges with the Bluetooth chips.
After a colleague screen for the latest coronavirus the compilation of data will help to decide which workers will be screened and isolated.
Every US state has locked viruses easier, but homework in the California tech industry remains the norm. More than 86 000 cases of coronavirus and 3 500 deaths have been recorded in California, the lowest estimates in the United States relative to the highest population in the county.
Mist, a small but rapidly growing WiFi equipment company, sells its new system to other businesses through its annual $150 per access point subscription and is being tested by around 25 customers, said Aaron.
He said organizations that are normally unable to invest on updating older technologies prove that sufficient funding for touch tracing at the workplace is possible.
'If it's why I'm outsourcing my old Wi-Fi and putting a Bluetooth Low Energy solution in Wi-Fi and supporting the use of contact tracking boxes, I definitely get the budget,' he said.
Aaron said customers would skip the Bluetooth component into their system, however they still see if the number of Wi-Fi devices in areas like conference rooms becomes overwhelmed.
During the pandemic, several software companies have announced tools to automate contact tracking and to prevent disruptions for their customers.
Slovakia-based Symbiosy, among others, told the organization that it was able to recognise some 40 individuals after an employee got infected last month by the own apps and sensors from Quuppa.
Tomas Melisko, Head of HB Reavis' Symbiosy Team, said that we could not accomplish the precision manually. "And if you were to just analyze building access logs we would have to send twice as many people to test them."
