During this health emergency, it is important to be able to accurately measure the physical distance between people to reduce the risk of infection as much as possible.
The University of Trento is contributing with a research project aimed precisely at guaranteeing the correct social distancing by using the Janus device. This is an innovative sensor system developed by the research group of Gian Pietro Picco, professor at the Department of Information Engineering and Science, in collaboration with Amy Murphy, researcher of the Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK).
Janus, name inspired by the two-faced god of Roman mythology, is the technology that exploits the potential of two radios in synergy: Bluetooth, which is able to identify all devices that are in the immediate vicinity with limited battery consumption, and a different type of radio, the ultra wide-band (UWB) which is activated after detecting the devices and measures the distances between them with extreme accuracy (error <10cm), using the battery only for the time strictly necessary. In this way, the system is able to efficiently identify if someone is too close and there is a risk of infection, managing to alert users through an audible impulse or a vibration when the safety distance is not respected and recording the contact to enable further contact tracing.
The ongoing trials have demonstrated the accuracy and reliability of the system as a whole and its versatility when used in profoundly different contexts, such as the offices and laboratories of UniTrento and FBK, as well as for monitoring the correct distance among children during summer camps.
The project was funded by the VRT Foundation as part of a specific call for COVID. Nevertheless, given the effectiveness of the demonstration prototype, this technology has now become an engineered, robust, and field-validated system, and has been recently granted funding from EIT Digital which provides for engineering and marketing at European level.
Janus' innovation, namely its ability to efficiently and accurately detect the distance between moving devices without the need for infrastructure, is not limited to use in pandemic contexts. For example, it finds application in the field of safety at work, e.g., to alert operators on a construction site when they approach a moving vehicle (eg, a bulldozer) or in general a dangerous area.
Useful links
- Video Fondazione VRT (on Linkedin)
- Video presentation of Poster Conference SenSys 2020
- Servizio TGR Trento (in Italian, at minute 9:11) on monitoring the correct distance among children during summer camps.