NIST researchers designed and tested these low-cost devices for detecting close contacts to potentially help limit disease spread while preserving privacy.
Credit: K. Keenan/NIST
In efforts to limit the spread of disease while preserving privacy, an interdisciplinary research team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has designed and tested low-cost devices and methods that can detect when people or animals come into close contact with each other.
The wearable devices combine commercial Bluetooth radio hardware with NIST cryptographic features. While not always reliable in estimating the distance between wearers, the NIST system may be useful for research on how people and animals move through spaces and interact. The system may offer advantages over contact tracing using smartphones, which are not used consistently in certain settings and may be less private.
Seventeen volunteers in 10 households participated in the NIST study of system performance during normal activities. Devices were either worn or placed in the house to collect data for at least one hour a day. Researchers measured the strength of the radio signals received by the devices to estimate distance between the volunteers. They defined an “encounter” as occurring when device wearers came within 2 meters of each other for at least 15 minutes, based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definition of close contact. Participants were also asked to manually log when and for how long they thought they had an encounter.
The results showed some correlation between the strength of the radio signal received and the distance between wearers, but estimates were unreliable due to effects of variables such as the direction the user was facing. There was also uncertainty about how to proce ..
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