Guardian V1.0

GuardianV1.0

Imagine you going out every day in the time when COVID-19 still does not have a cure. With every foot you move forward, with every person walking past you, the risk of getting infected can be unknown. I don’t even know what the worst thing would be: getting infected (which is a bit too hard to prevent) or getting to know if you were infected. Like always it is best to know about the disease in the early stages because it then takes less effort to cure. Also, think of all the people that this infected person can infect unknowingly. The chain of infection if not broken, will keep spreading widely.

Now, the solution I came up with, cannot possibly kill the virus (if it did, then we might have had a vaccine). However, it can timely alert you/local authorities about someone, who got infected, and if you ever came in contact with that person (with contact I mean the distance between you and the person was less than 1 meters of course) knowingly or unknowingly.

Let me explain you how it all works:

The built

I have developed a wearable aka Guardian that resembles an elongated wristwatch. The device is equipped with a couple of sensors that can help track the temperature and the heart-rate of the person who wears it. Also, every Guardian has a unique identification number linked to its user.

Every Guardian has a flash memory that can be programmed to contain the details of its user like the unique id number, name of the person, his address, and his emergency number. Keeping in mind the security of this personal data, there is an encoder and decoder in Guardian that can convert the information into a non-human readable format.

The brain of Guardian is an ESP8266 module which will be powered by the 5V small rechargeable battery, which can either charge via a normal charging cable or via Solar (the outer body of Guardian has solar panel embedded in it). Also, for daily usage, it has a small built-in screen that displays time and can switch to show the temperature and the heart rate of the body of the person. On the side of the screen, there are small taillights that glows in either of the three colors: green (user safe), orange (fever & difficulty in breathing), red (user might have the virus).

Note: The parameters of the body temperature and heart rate must be variable for the medical specialists to decide.

The working

Guardian has to be made available to everyone. Once all of us wear it, it starts doing what it is supposed to do - monitor. For now, Guardian connects to a local network (either mobile hotspot or Wi-Fi) for operating. As soon as the Guardian is worn by the user, it starts taking the measurement of the body temperature every one hour and heart rate every half hour and sends this data to Amazon Web Server that is preconfigured to handle every user’s data separately. In case the body temperature of the user goes beyond 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the Guardian goes into deep observance mode. Now, every hour it will check if the body temperature is still above 100 degrees Fahrenheit for a duration of 3 long days. If the temperature stays up for 3 days long, and the heart rate of the person is also higher than 90bpm, it turns the tail lights from green to orange and continues observing in deep observance mode.

If a normal person comes in contact with another person and the distance between them was less than one meter, both of their Guardians will exchange a small packet of information (which would contain the person’s unique id number, name, address and contact number in encrypted format) and this information will be sent in their respective data bucket in amazon web services.

Now assume that the person who was having fever for more than 3 days, still have continuous high temperature and as well as BMP for more than 10 days, his details will then be flagged by the servers and a team of doctors will be sent to his address for a checkup. If the person comes positive with COVID-19, all those people who this infected person came in contact with (less than one meter apart) within the last 14 days, their watch’s tail light will turn red in color indicating they came in contact with a person who was tested positive and their details will be sent by the server to the emergency team who can isolate them until proper results of their COVID-19 test comes out. This way, the chain of contact can be broken and the widespread of the disease can be stopped.

Also, if the person who initially had fever for 3 days, gets fine again after a day or two and all his vitals return to normal, after 4 days his watch’s tail light will change from orange to green again and watch will return from deep observance mode to normal observance mode.

Storage Problem?

The complete users list that a Guardian came in contact with (less than one meter) can be deleted after a time span of 15 days if none of the Guardian users comes out to be in fatal condition thereby saving the storage space.

Battery Problem?

The first build of the watch comes with only two options for charging the battery:

1. Via solar which is embedded in the complete outer body of the Guardian.

2. Via a universal serial bus (USB) cable.

However, in the future, the Guardian can also be charged via kinetic energy or energy that comes from the human body (maybe heat energy).

Cost Problem?

The components of the Guardian are less than 20 Euros collectively.

Comfort Problem?

The Guardian usually will come with a strap made from recycled cloth. However, as per the needs of the person, it can be changed to even leather for better comfort.