The Novel Coronavirus outbreak has forced every individual to maintain social distancing to prevent the spread of the deadly COVID-19. Most of the governments have initiated countrywide lockdowns around the world. However, there are still some people who are taking the situation lightly. They are being resistant to maintain the mandatory distance from others. Now, to help people remind about the importance of keeping distance, an Indian engineering student has built “Kawach”, a small pendent-like device, that might protect citizens from getting infected by the deadly disease.
Prabin Kumar Das is a student of Lovely Professional University (LPU) which is located in Punjab. The engineering student noticed that despite so many warnings by health organisations like the WHO and the CDCs, people were finding it difficult to maintain the mandatory one-metre distance from each other. So, to remind people about the safe distancing, he made “Kawach”.
“Kawach”, Hindi for “shield”, is a pendent-like device that can be worn by a user around the neck. Now, it comes equipped with a lot of hardware. There is a vibrator, an LED, a controller, a battery, an ultrasonic sensor, and a human body temperature sensor.
How Does It Work?
Now, “Kawach” can do a lot of things for the user. First of all, with the help of the ultrasonic sensor, it can detect any other individual within one meter of the wearer and consequently glows and vibrates to let the user know. This feature is the USP of the product and can help citizens maintain a safe distance from each other to prevent the spread of the virus.
Apart from this feature, “Kawach” can also remind the user to wash his/her hands every 30 minutes by vibrating. It can also warn the user when his/her body temperature rises. For this, the device uses the human body temperature sensor (obviously!) to monitor body temperature. When the body temperature of the user surpasses the limit, the device sends a warning SMS to the user’s smartphone. Pretty smart, right?
Now, according to the reports, the device will be priced at only Rs 500 (~$6.69), once commercialised. If the demand rises and then if it is mass-produced, the cost can come down to a mere Rs 400 (~$5.35).
