Accent Systems Proposes to Fight COVID-19 Using a Bluetooth Low Energy Wristband

Spanish engineering firm Accent Systems claims to have developed a smart wearable, based on the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 system-on-chip, that could mean cities no longer have to go into lockdown to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2: the COVID-19 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Wristband.

Using what appears to be the Mokosmart W2 Beacon hardware platform, which is itself based on the Nordic nRF52832, Accent is claiming to have developed a means to automate "contact tracing" — the means by which the spread of a virus can be tracked and halted by quickly finding out with whom infected people have recently been in contact.

The system, which is claimed to be under active deployment in unnamed Middle Eastern countries now, works by having the wristband track all other wristbands in its vicinity over a rolling 15-30 day period. If a subject is found to have been infected, this encrypted data is passed along to local health authorities for decryption — enabling them to contact potentially exposed individuals for testing and/or isolation.

“Our wristband is a much more effective alternative to confining an entire population which does not one hundred percent guarantee that transmission of the virus is stopped as a new outbreak may appear at any time," claims Accent chief executive Jordi Casamada. "Instead the majority of a population are allowed to continue living and working normally, and the focus shifts to the precision tracing and isolation of only those individuals who may have come into contact with someone who is infected, no matter how large or diverse that network may be."

"What’s already become very clear in the battle against Covid-19 is the power of the IoT and accurate data analytics to help track down and significantly reduce the infection rate of this terrible virus," adds Geir Langeland, Nordic Semiconductor Director of Sales & Marketing, of the company's work. "But I am also extremely encouraged by a growing trend among the world’s leading product and engineering companies to step forward and develop low cost solutions at extremely high speed that can help governments and healthcare authorities around the world turn the tide in the battle against this invisible killer."

Neither company has, however, addressed the biggest flaw in the concept outside privacy concerns: With no long-range radio capabilities, the wristband must rely on a connection to the user's smartphone to transmit the data. With the smartphone also containing a Bluetooth radio, the same concept could be implemented purely in software using a custom application running on citizens' existing smartphones — without requiring them to wear and charge a separate device.

More information on the concept can be found on the Nordic Semiconductor website.