PRE2020 1 Group2

Group Members

Name	Student Code	Email address
Pleun Hutten	1310925	p.m.hutten@student.tue.nl
Jeroen Bakermans	1007330	j.bakermans@student.tue.nl
Rik Nietsch	1244044	r.nietsch@student.tue.nl
D.Kim	1258893	d.kim@student.tue.nl
E.W. Pardijs	1257811	e.w.pardijs@student.tue.nl

Introduction

The measures taken for prevention of the spread of the coronavirus financially affect all sorts of enterprises. Employees are obligated to work from home, children suddenly had to follow online education, thousands of people lost their jobs et cetera. From one moment to the other, there was a lockdown and it wasn’t allowed to leave your home if it wasn’t for a crucial job, grocery shopping or a for a run (on your own). Social distancing is the new norm.

The Netherlands is slowing building up the ‘1.5m-society’; hotels, restaurants, cafes, gyms, museums, education facilities, offices et cetera are allowed to welcome people again, provided that its visitors keep 1.5m distance at all times. However, there is one sector that is still deeply suffering from the measures taken concerning the coronavirus: the event branch. It is not (and will not be in the near future) allowed to organize events with large numbers of people. Festivals, expositions, fairs, markets, mass sports events are all removed from the calendars. But might there be innovative solutions that would nevertheless make such events possible again? That’s exactly what we are going to focus on during this project!

We are going to develop a device that makes sure all visitors of events always keep safe distance of 1.5m between each other. The principle is rather simple: everybody wears this gadget and when two (or more) come into a radius of 1.5m of each other, an alarming signal will go off. This will serve as a warning to the visitors to remain distanced from each other. Furthermore, the violation of the social distancing rules of this specific individual will be registered. The event-organizers could decide to intervene after for instance five warnings.

Objectives

The current COVID-19 situation makes the coming together of hundreds or even thousands of people impossible. The event branch is financially hit and does not have any certainty about when events will be allowed again. Therefore, goal of this project is to come up with an innovative and safe way to make the organization of events possible in times in which the coronavirus is lurking. It is aimed to develop and test a prototype and evaluate the functioning of the device and improve its functionalities.

Stakeholders

Users

Visitors of events

The direct users of the device will be visitors of events like concerts, festivals, expositions et cetera. When you visit an event at which this device will be used, you will have no choice but to accept the terms. A downside for the introduction of the social distancing device may be that a ticket for an event will get more expensive, as for every customer a gadget must be bought.

Event organizers

The event managers will thus provide all customers with a device that tracks the distance they keep from other people. This way the organization can do crowd control to make sure that everybody respects the rules of social distancing. The organization thus uses the devices to create a safe environment for its visitors.

Artists

Artists indirectly also make use of the social distancing gadget. The coming together of larger number of people will be possible again, which is something artists will profit from.

Society

Community

Not many articles have been written on the effects of the quarantine, social distancing and social isolation, as life is far from back to normal. Once more time has gone by, the real psychological impact will become clear. However, there are some first researches in which provisional psychological effects have become clear. The lockdown-measures prevented the virus from spreading on a large scale, but the consequences for isolated individuals will be a problem in the future. Research of Hiremath et al showed that the measures causes psychological problems like depression, anxiety and panic disorder . There have even been reported suicides due to psychological effects of social isolement and all other inconveniences . General research on social isolation also reveals that social isolation evidently harms mental health . Naturally, we need social interaction, which is exactly what was deprived from us in lockdown. Coming together and making fun at a concert or sports event could significantly contribute to minimizing the psychological problems that are caused by the corona crisis.

Local authorities

The local authorities are responsible for deciding which events can take place in their region and which ones are not allowed to take place. Therefore, with the development of this gadget it is aimed to persuade local authorities to allow events with larger numbers of people.

Government

First of all, if a social distancing gadget for events will be nationally introduced, the government will definitely have a say about it. The government of course has to power to keep such a product from the market. However, suppose the gadget will be approved by the government, then it will be up to the local authorities to decide whether to allow events during the corona crisis, as the government has given the responsibility for the regulation of events to the local authorities. However, if the number of infections (and/or hospital admission and deaths) rises significantly, the government has the power to cancel all events (from a certain number of people, for instance 250 people), like it did in the beginning of the corona crisis. The government thus can always take control.

Enterprise

Manufacturers

Obviously, if this device gets through the testing phases and it is approved by all governmental institutions, it must be manufactured on a larger scale.

Logistic companies

After the product has been manufactures, it will by supplied to event organizations by logistic companies.

Security

The introduction of this gadget will affect security companies. These last months the number of security employees in places where many people come together has risen significantly. The introduction of this product might take away the need for extra security.

User Needs

Although restaurants and cafés are opening their doors and summer-evenings are being spent on the terrace, the festival-summer is entirely cancelled. The social isolation is deeply affecting not only children and young adults, but also the elderly. Everybody longs for entertainment, like we were used to. Therefore, it would be a relief, not only economically, but also psychologically for the society if the event sector could resume activities.

In this crisis it becomes clear that many sectors profit from the organization of events. Sport athletes, artists, bands, orchestras, catering and all organizations that are responsible for the setting up of events suddenly were busy cancelling their events and paying back people’s money instead of making money. Many enterprises are in deep crisis or already went bankrupt . This device could make events allowed again, because it makes sure that the social distancing rules are being respected. This tool could help event organizers to make local authorities permit their events.

Ethical considerations

The development of this product requires considering whether the (ethical) disadvantages weigh up against the advantages for the users. The advantages for the users have been described above. The social distancing gadget will make events possible again in times in which corona is amongst us, which means that customers can have entertainment, while event organizers and artists profit from this.

Not only the advantages, but also the (ethical) disadvantages must be paid attention to. Obviously, this tool only gives the desired result if every visitor on the terrain carries a device. As a consequence, each visitor must accept to wear a gadget and respect the social distancing rules at all times. This means that someone who does not want to be monitored all the time, cannot be admitted to the festival terrain. So customers have no choice but to compromise to wearing this gadget, otherwise they will be excluded form the event. It can be argued that this not entirely ethically neat. However, we think that this is the only way to make events fully corona-proof (with of course extra measures for hygiene).

This means that the crowd will be constantly monitored. If a device comes within a radius of 1.5m of another device, a warning will be sent out the users of both devices. In the first versions of the product it will not be able to make a distinction between devices of foreigners or devices of people living together. Consequently, people from the same household unfortunately also have to keep a distance of 1.5 meters from each other.

State-of-the-art

Due to the outbreak of global pandemic COVID 19, there have been many efforts to keep up to date with technologies to enhance devices or systems e.g. Analysis of big data, Artificial intelligence, Blockchain. Stuff that has been already made are such as a real-time tracking map, modelling studies of the viral activity in each country using a database, active communication between people and public institutes using social media platforms, the thermal imaging–enabled facial recognition system and algorithms running on positive cases of COVID 19. Our group's projects also want to follow the technological trend according to the pandemic. This project is aimed at developing a wristband/watch that can alert and remind the reasonable social distance (1.5m) between people at a festival or an event venue.

Technologies for social distancing

A social distancing has been introduced to reduce the spread of the pandemic at the early stage. However, there have been difficulties to implement a social distancing in large-scale measures. To mitigate these difficulties, a lot of effective technologies are used to facilitate social distancing in practice. e.g. AI, thermal, computer vision, Inertial sensors, ultrasound and visible light. The referenced paper above also contains information about wireless technologies and open issues. Other than this, there is an enhanced technology regarding deep learning framework for monitoring social distancings. This framework uses YOLO v3 detection model and Deepsort to separate people from the background at a surveillance camera and tracking people with IDs and boxes. However, it is hard to implement on a small device we are planning to make. Thus, this idea is not going to be used in our project.

Ultra-wideband for location detection

This paper conducts research about a comparison with Bluetooth low energy (BLE) and Ultrawide-band (UWB) technology. There are two main reasons for using Ultrawide-band(UWB) instead of Bluetooth(BLE) on this paper. The first reason is that the UWB time of flight is better than the BLE receive signal strength indication. The paper shows the second reason by stating an industrial trend in using location technology at the company, Apple. Nevertheless, the company has been promoting for BLE for years, it has replaced IBeacon BLE technology by UWB. This is because UWB has brought the possibility to use more applications and higher quality. Also, the location accuracy and data rates are higher than BLE since UWB operates in a wide frequency range (approximately 500 MHz) while BLE does in around 2 MHz.

The paper introduces a concept of indoor positioning technique and provides an analysis of SWOT which is strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Also, it states various positioning technologies e.g. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) - which can be replaced or improved by UWB -, Infrared (IR), Ultrasonic, Zigbee, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Cellular Based, Bluetooth, Dead Reckoning, Image-Based Technologies and Pseudolites and it explains why UWB has gained attention as a positioning skill. At the intro part, it compares Indoor positioning systems (IPSs) and Global Positioning System (GPS). IPSs keeps updating data continuously in real-time but signals attenuate and scatter to go through solid obstacles using GPS. With our project, it is stated that the product is aimed at an outdoor event or festival. However, assuming that data can be updated more quickly and that people's movements are not as extensive as military operations or satellite orbits in space, IPSs would be more suitable to apply than GPS. Furthermore, in terms of the cost, UWB is also cheaper than other technologies and consumes less power.

UWB has an accuracy of 5 to 10 cm compared to roughly 5m accuracy for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The data rate of UWB has been adjusted to 6 to 8 MB/s in contrast to the past in which it was 100 MB/s, for better use for mobile devices. Also UWB consumes less power than Wi-Fi. However a disadvantage of UWB is that Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are better at interacting with mobile devices.

Dual patch microstrip antenna

Dual patch microstrip antenna does not require a physical connection between the antenna compartment and the feed line. Also, a combination of slot coupling technique and the two-layer electromagnetically coupled patch (EMCP)antenna offers advantages that the device can be used in wideband and experiences a low cross-polarisation. The impedance bandwidth of the microstrip could be improved when a modest horizontal displacement between the two patches are given.

Ultrasonic sensor

Al-Mahturi, Ayad & Rahim, Ruzairi. (2016). ULTRASONIC SENSOR FOR DISTANCE MEASUREMENT

One technique that can be used to measure the distance between different objects is with ultrasonic sensor. This technique is based on measuring the pulse reflection time. So, how long it takes to get the echo from the original sound. Ultrasonic sound is not hearable by humans. Usually a normal ultrasonic sensor can measure a maximum distance of 2.5 meters. A downfall of this technique is that the refresh rate of the sensor is low.

GPS

Shen, J. S., Bao, Y., Gan, W., Guo, W., Zhang, M., & Wang, G. (2018). Millimeter-accuracy structural deformation monitoring using stand-alone gps: case study in beijing, china. Journal of Surveying Engineering, 144(1). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)SU.1943-5428.0000242

N. Idris, A. M. Suldi, J. R. A. Hamid and D. Sathyamoorthy, "Effect of radio frequency interference (RFI) on the Global Positioning System (GPS) signals," 2013 IEEE 9th International Colloquium on Signal Processing and its Applications, Kuala Lumpur, 2013, pp. 199-204, doi: 10.1109/CSPA.2013.6530041.

GPS is another technique to determine the distance between multiple users. The precision of the GPS technique is around the 5-7 mm in this study. Dual frequency GPS is preferable. A dual-frequency GPS does not use one signal but uses two signals to improve the accuracy and reduce disturbance from Radio frequency interference (RFI). An example of such interference could be that from Bluetooth other sources could be that from wireless networks. So, this can be hard to realize when one would like to organize a festival with many attendees. Another problem can a multipath error. This means that the signal bounces of buildings or obstructions leading to making the GPS confused. However, in an open field at a festival this would not be the case.

Bluetooth

Cho, Hosik & Ji, Jianxun & Chen, Zili & Park, Hyuncheol & Lee, Wonsuk. (2015). Measuring a Distance between Things with Improved Accuracy. Procedia Computer Science. 52. 10.1016/j.procs.2015.05.119.

Another technique that can be used to measure distance is with a Bluetooth low-energy sensor. Via the signal strength distance can be estimated. The downfall is that the outcomes of such measurement comes with an high error rate, almost 50%. This can be reduced by self-correcting beacons these are placed at an fixed position. This point will act as an reference point for the others to measure from. This reduces the error rate to 10% within a distance of 1.5 meters. Without this extra beacon estimation can be made on how close someone is but no real precise numbers can be given.

Bluetooth (BLE) is about proximity sensing, not measuring distance per se. Measuring distance can be done using signal strength, however that might not be a good indicator. For example there could be an object in the way. To overcome this, a technique called “fingerprinting” could be used. Fingerprinting makes several measurements to several fixed beacons and then chooses the distance to be the closest distance to a beacon.

Combining technologies

Instead of using a single medium to estimate the locations of the targets, positioning technologies can be combined to get the best of both worlds. For example, the SVG system combines WLAN and UWB. WLAN has the advantage of covering large area, while UWB can give highly accurate position estimated in some small required areas.

Plan

Approach

In order to produce a solution to our problem we will use the following approach. First of all we’ll do the necessary research required to come up with a design for our product. This will be research into the current state of our problem, the technological aspects of the problem and also the societal implications of a solution. We will formalize the requirements, preferences and constraints of our product and possibly interview stakeholders related to our problem, we will then create a preliminary design from which we will develop a detailed design. From the design we will develop a functional prototype that can be used to help maintain a distance of 1.5m between people, this functional prototype will be tested with a predetermined test plan. All throughout the course we aim to actively maintain the wiki page to document the design process, a presentation will also be made.

In the planning below it can be seen how we aim to divide the process over the weeks.

Planning

Week	Tasks	Milestones
Week 1	Form groups, choose a subject, document problems statement, start planning and research.
Week 2	Continue research, formalize RPC's of product and possibly get in contact with stakeholders.
Week 3	Create preliminary design, decide the necessary hardware and obtain it	Complete preliminary design
Week 4	Detailed design, create test plan, breadboard prototype	Complete design
Week 5	Work on prototype and document full design on wiki
Week 6	Work on wiki and finish the prototype and perform test plan.	Working prototype
Week 7	Document results on wiki page, produce presentation video
Week 8	Last touches on wiki and video	Complete wiki, complete presentation

Deliverables

At the end of this project we want to have three deliverables:

• A functional prototype that has been tested
• A wiki page documenting:
  • The Research performed
  • The design process of our prototype
  • The results and concluding remarks
• A video presentation about our prototype.

Literature study

Position Measurement using Bluetooth, by Sheng Zhou and John K. Pollard

Using bluetooth there is an position error of about 1.2m indoors. Outdoors this is generally less, however in the case of strong multipath interference there can still be errors.

Distance Sensing with Ultrasonic Sensor and Arduino, by N. Anju Latha , B. Rama Murthy, K. Bharat Kumar

An Arduino microcontroller in combination with an ultrasonic sensor can be used to measure distance. Ultrasonic sensor are popular, since they are cheap and have a precision of less than 1 cm in distance measurements of up to 6m. The most common method for measurement is the time of flight measurement, which measures the time between departure and arrival of a signal. A disadvantage of this way of measurement is that the target to be measured should be perpendicular to the plane in which the signal travels. It also the case that the bigger the target, the more accurate the distance will be measured.

The Impact of Covid 19 on Event Management Industry in India, By Mr. Anup M Gajjar & Dr. Bhaveshkumar J Parmar

The event management sector is the fastest growing industry in India. This industry has a lot of damage because of Covid-19, but it is not easily quantifiable how much, since the industry does not come under one ministry or one department, in contrast to e.g. Germany. A lower growth of India’s economy will mean a lower growth of the event industry and a lot of jobs are at stake. The event management sector are now advised to organise events such that information is up-to-date, spaces are well designed to prevent crowd stupidities, communication is clear and event managers are urged to plan for finance and make hand-washing more accessible. It is not possible the identify the loss accurately, but it is certain that because of travel fear and public gathering fear it will take time to recover.

Were Stay-at-Home Orders During Covid-19 Harmful for Business? The Market’s View, by Chen Chen , Sudipto Dasgupta, Thanh D. Huynh, Ying Xia

Stay-at-Home orders were actually good for business. In states without Stay-at-Home orders businesses were worse off. In the U.S., where the research was conducted, it is found that the effect is seen more vividly in counties with a high number of infections and for firms in essential industries. Although the short-term effects of a lockdown seem bad for business, the long-term effects are positive. A reason for this might be that the measures are seen as necessary for stopping the spread of the virus and making labour participation possible.

COVID-19 impact on city and region: what’s next after lockdown? bY Myounggu Kang , Yeol Choi , Jeongseob Kim , Kwan Ok Lee , Sugie Lee , In Kwon Park , Jiyoung Park & Ilwon Seo

Density does not play a big role in the spread of the virus. On the contrary, cities have benefits, such as response times or hospitals being nearby that could be taken advantage of. Essential services should also be close by and there should be enough cheap housing. Furthermore, economics structures like global trade should be restored to keep jobs. Also privacy concerns should not be underestimated and transparency and voluntary consent should be premised. Last but not least we should make sure prejudice and hatred do not develop, which means a great deal of social effort should be made.

Other useful links:

Arduino with an ultrasonic sensor and a buzzer. If an object gets too close to the sensor, the buzzer goes off.

https://www.instructables.com/id/ARDUINO-DISTANCE-BUZZER/

Using Bluetooth:

https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/tanishq/diy-bluetooth-proximity-sensor-c82265

LIDAR:

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/lidar-lite-v3-hookup-guide/all

15-25 cm accuracy(?)

https://www.getmapping.com/support/height-lidar-data/how-accurate-height-data-and-lidar

Logbook

Week 1

Name	Total Hours	Tasks
Jeroen	9.5	Meetings (1.5 hrs), brainstorming (1 hr), literature study on state of the art (7 hrs)
Pleun	10.5	(Preparing and) meeting (2 hrs), reading other wiki's and brainstorming (1.5 hrs), writing on introduction, objectives, stakeholders, users needs and ethical considerations (5 hrs) and literature research psychological part (2 hrs)
Dayeong	11.5	Meetings (1.5 hrs), looking up wikis of previous projects + searching for 8 technology literature (6 hrs), Reading papers and making a summary on State-of-the-art (4 hrs)
Rik	10	Meetings (1.5 hrs), researching for subject, reading and summarizing papers regarding the technical aspect of our product and the financial impact of Corona
Erik	0	Meetings (1.5 hrs)

Week 2

Name	Total Hours	Tasks
Jeroen	0	Tasks here
Pleun	0	Tasks here
Dayeong	0	Tasks here
Rik	0	Tasks here
Erik	0	Tasks here

Week 3

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Week 5

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Week 6

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Week 7

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Week 8

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Jeroen	0	Tasks here
Pleun	0	Tasks here
Dayeong	0	Tasks here
Rik	0	Tasks here
Erik	0	Tasks here