Digital contact tracing technique using smart phones

Contact tracing is the process of identification of all those people with whom infected patient might have contacted. Manual contact tracing is difficult to deal nowadays because we require more manpower and cost to identify people that come in contact with COVID-19 patient and then asking them to s

Project Title

Digital contact tracing technique using smart phones

Project Area of Specialization

Software Engineering

Project Summary

Contact tracing is the process of identification of all those people with whom infected patient might have contacted. Manual contact tracing is difficult to deal nowadays because we require more manpower and cost to identify people that come in contact with COVID-19 patient and then asking them to self-isolate in order to reduce further risk. To cut down manpower needed to manage this process, we will build a digital contact tracing application that can be installed on smartphones. Individuals will download the application and then the app will use built-in sensors (Bluetooth)to trace nearby contacts/person. If an app user is infected with covid-19, technology will identify close contacts and notify people whom they have been in contact with for the last 15 days. We can trace nearby people using GPS or Bluetooth but since GPS greatly affects user privacy, gives less precision of results, and consumes more resources of a smartphone (like a battery) as compared to Bluetooth which supports higher precision without affecting user privacy and battery life for that reason, we will be implementing contact tracing using Bluetooth. Contact tracing applications have already been used by many countries(not Pakistan) to help health authorities to defeat COVID-19.

Project Objectives

The aim of this application is to use minimum battery power and run in the background while keeping records of nearby people without affecting privacy of people. Contact tracing will find cases quickly so they can be isolated to reduce spread. It will alert and notify individuals who have been in close proximity with a newly confirmed case during the past 14 days of confirming that case. Track the movement of self-isolated individuals' cases for the duration of their isolation, to ensure they abide by quarantine regulations. 
 

Project Implementation Method

We will be developing a smartphone application in Futter. The app will run in the background and will use Google nearby API(that uses Bluetooth and works offline)to detect other nearby users and will save data in the cloud firestore (database). When any user of the app will be infected with covid-19, he/she will upload his/her covid status. The app will be able to fetch his/her close contacts and will notify them that “Someone you had been in contact with has been diagnosed with covid”, in order to reduce disease. The app will be able to delete contacts other than 14 days from a database. Time and date of contact will also be stored by the application. In addition, there will be the latest statistics of covid(regional and worldwide) to keep users up-to-date about the situation of covid. User will be able to disable contact tracing anytime and can reactivate any time according to his/her choice. Besides, the app will also provide covid-check-in(questionnaire)to check symptoms on daily basis. Users will also be able to share the app with their family/friends. There will also be a newsfeed section where you will get news from ministry officials about covid. The app will be for the country of Pakistan as no such kind of contact tracing application has been made in Pakistan yet.

Benefits of the Project

As compared to manual contact tracing, digital contact tracing data is more secure, reliable, and accurate. Through digital contact tracing, we can overcome COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Digital contact tracing is the portable solution of COVID-19 i-e using a smartphone you are preventing the spread of disease. Digital contact tracing largely reduces the power, cost, and resources as compared to traditional contact tracing. The technology makes the process faster and often without physical intervention thus ensuring the safety of the health workers. Digital Contact Tracing provides an effective way to control sexually transmitted diseases and is a robust solution.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The final deliverable will be a smartphone application developed in Flutter that will run in the background and will identify/record nearby people within a range of 10-15 m. If the app user will be infected with covid-19 or any other infectious disease he/she will share his/her report and then the app will notify all close contacts of the patient through a smartphone. There will also be a chatbot to answer queries smartly related to the app or disease. The app will also operate via voice in order to ease visually impaired people's life. There will also be a screener/questionnaire for users to check their symptoms on daily basis. The app will also provide news and statistics related to the disease. In the future, we will extend it to multi languages like Sindhi,Urdu so that Pakistani people can use it more effectively .The application can also track mood, visualize your progress and find resources to seek additional help and resources.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Software System

Core Industry

IT

Other Industries

Medical , Health

Core Technology

Big Data

Other Technologies

Artificial Intelligence(AI), Others

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Responsible Consumption and Production

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com