Safetree: An Integrated Wearable Device and Mobile Application Solution for Pandemic Mitigation and Post-Pandemic Preparedness, Incorporating Contact Tracing, Social Distancing Emergency Alert Notification, and Socialization Features

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for effective mitigation strategies to reduce infectious disease spread. Safetree is an innovative wearable device and mobile application that integrates social distancing, contact tracing, emergency alert notification, and socialization features. The social distancing feature enabled the devices to successfully detect all nearby wearables within a 1-meter range within their line of sight using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) as a transceiver. Unfortunately, due to environmental conditions that were present in several of the experimental settings, some of the devices operated outside of the 1-meter range. The success rate in generating the appropriate tree diagram for each situation in the experimentation set-up resulted in 100%. The average response time between the wearable device and the mobile application varied from 9 seconds up to almost 11 seconds. In the fields of contract tracing and social network analysis, the tree algorithm has been shown to be effective for examining user interactions. This algorithm was also implemented on the emergency notification feature and, the socialization feature which enabled the users to interact with one another while maintaining social distancing guidelines, promoting mental health and social well-being amidst and after the pandemic.

Keywords

• Social distancing
• Contact tracing
• Tree algorithm
• Internet of things
• Bluetooth low energy

References

1. Chang, E., Moselle, K. A., & Richardson, A. (2020). CovidSIMVL --transmission trees, Superspreaders and contact tracing in agent based models of covid-19 [Preprint]. medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.21.20248673
2. Cruz, J. C. D., Cruz, F. R., Sese, J., Borbon, M. D., Cacayuran, A. G., Dela Rea, K., & Gammad, J. R. (2018). Faculty monitoring system with mobile application using received signal strength Indication. In 2018 IEEE 10th International Conference on Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology, Communication and Control, Environment and Management (HNICEM) (pp. 1-6). Baguio City, Philippines.
3. Cruz, J. C. D., Garcia, R. G., Garcia, A. J. G., Manalo, K. A. A., Nworgu, V. I., & Payumo, J. B. M. (2018). Proximity tracker using received signal strength, particle filter and extended kalman filter. In 2018 IEEE 10th International Conference on Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology, Communication and Control, Environment and Management (HNICEM) (pp. 1-6). Baguio City, Philippines.
4. Department of Health. (2021). COVID-19 FAQS [Online]. https://doh.gov.ph/COVID-19/FAQs.
5. Jeon, K. E., She, J., Soonsawad, P., & Ng, P. C. (2018). BLE beacons for internet of things applications: Survey, challenges, and opportunities. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 5(2), 811–828.
6. Jones, N. R., Qureshi, Z. U., Temple, R. J., Larwood, J. P. J., Greenhalgh, T., & Bourouiba, L. (2020). Two metres or one: what is the evidence for physical distancing in covid-19? BMJ, 370(September), m3223.
7. Lithium ion Battery Manufacturer and Supplier in China-DNK Power. (n.d.). How to calculate battery run time. https://www.dnkpower.com/how-to-calculate-battery-run-time/
8. Lubis, A. F., & Basari (2020). Proximity-based COVID-19 contact tracing system devices for locally problems solution. In Proceedings of the 2020 3rd International Seminar on Research of Information Technology and Intelligent Systems (ISRITI). (pp. 365-370).

9. Multisys Technologies Corporation. (2021). All-in-one eight elaborate features of contact tracing platform staysafe.ph [Online]. https://www.multisyscorp.com/news/all-in-one-eight-elaborate-features-of-contact-tracing-platform-staysafeph. [Accessed: 12-Oct-2021].
10. Newman, E. (2021, September). Explaining the decision tree flowchart and its Benefits [Blog post]. https://corp.yonyx.com/customer-service/explaining-the-decision-tree-flowchart-and-its-benefits/
11. Nielsen, J., & Budiu, R. (2023). Success rate: The simplest usability metric. nielsen norman group. Retrieved from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/success-rate-the-simplest-usability-metric/
12. Song, S. W., Lee, Y. S., Imdad, F., Niaz, M. T., & Kim, H. S. (2019). Efficient advertiser discovery in Bluetooth low energy devices. Energies, 12(9), 1707.
13. Su, Z., Pahlavan, K., & Agu, E. (2021). Performance evaluation of COVID-19 proximity detection using bluetooth le signal. IEEE, 9, 38891–38906.
14. World Health Organization. (2021). Who western pacific | Covid-19 information for the public [Online]. https://www.who.int/philippines/emergencies/covid-19-response-in-the-philippines/information. [Accessed: 12-Oct-2021].