The digital incarnation of contact tracing for COVID-19 is occurring in countries around the world, with more coming on board every week.
Testing and contact tracing are two of the keys for Governor Newsom when it comes to easing shelter in place orders in the state. Now, a privately-held Sunnyvale company is offering technology that could allow for faster contact tracing in tall buildings.
GPS can generally tell where we are in 2D, but 3D can be challenging. 3D geo-location company Next Nav is offering technology that could allow faster contact tracing vertically - so someone could be found in a multi-story building with accuracy of 9 feet. Co-Founder and CEO of Next Nav Ganesh Pattabiraman says this allows more options for health officials.
“Do you isolate the entire building or could you be more targeted and specify which floors of the building or elevators need to be protected against,” said Pattabiraman.
The technology relies on software that integrates into applications now being built by hospitals, universities and public health officials.
“In combination with our network which is deployed around a city which essentially measures the atmospheric information which essentially combines that with the cell phone data, we are able to determine the altitude of that cell phone very precisely,” said Pattabiraman.
The FCC required telecom providers by next year to be able to pinpoint what floor a 911 call is coming from, not just the address.