TI wireless social distancing and contact tracing solutions. You deserve this kind of safety!

With its low cost and low energy capabilities, ^Bluetooth® Low Energy technology has become the basis for a variety of applications. For example, Bluetooth beacons are used to create real-time location systems, which are positioning systems that can monitor the whereabouts of equipment or people.

So what role does Bluetooth play in such applications? Asset tracking uses Bluetooth tags to automatically communicate with each other to send and receive data, effectively monitoring the proximity of things or people. Why monitor the proximity of people? Today, when it comes to easily transmitted diseases, it is critical to take actions to ensure safe interactions with each other. Whether going to the gym, the grocery store, or a business with many employees, proper social distancing applies to everyone.

Contact tracing and social distancing using Bluetooth technology is an effective way to monitor and slow the spread of communicable diseases to encourage safe practices. But how does it work? Let’s take the workplace as an example. Each employee receives a wearable bracelet or tag. The tags can automatically communicate with each other and alert employees when they are near another tag, ensuring proper social distance. The tag also collects data when interactions occur. If an employee tests positive for a given disease, the data can help determine who he has come into contact with. Using proximity detection instead of location detection protects the wearer’s privacy by not using actual GPS location data.

Figure 1 below shows an example of a contact tracing report and how it can be used to slow the spread of a disease by identifying who has come into contact with an infected person and has the potential to further spread the disease. This way appropriate measures can be taken to reduce transmission.

Figure 1: Example of a contact tracing report (Source: AiRISTA Flow)

SimpleLink ^™ Bluetooth devices, such as the CC26xx family of devices, can help solve the design challenges of developing Bluetooth asset tracking solutions. For example:

• Their small size – as low as 2.7 mm x 2.7 mm in the CC2640R2F wafer-level chip package – makes it possible to design them into applications such as wearable tags, wristbands and smart keys.

• The ultra-low power SimpleLink sensor controllers in our portfolio and standby currents as low as 0.94 µA help maximize battery life, which is critical for coin cell battery applications.

• Low-cost options for the CC2640R2L start at $0.85 .

Its security advantages include:

• Secure boot.

• 128-bit and 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard.

• Secure Hash Algorithm 2.

• Elliptic curve cryptography/RSA algorithm.

• True random number generator.

TI Bluetooth technology has been successful in such applications. For example, AiRISTA Flow has developed a social distancing and contact tracing solution so that employees can return to the workplace with confidence, knowing that the technology will reinforce practices to ensure their safety. The application of this technology ranges from healthcare to hospitality to industrial fields. Use cases include personnel safety, patient flow, asset tracking and loss prevention.

For more online technical support, please visit the TI E2E Chinese Support Forum (e2echina.ti.com).