Social Distancing Management
in the Workplace

Many InvisiShield systems are available to act as proximity sensors to enforce safe social distancing. We will be discussing the different features and advantages for the following systems:

• Bay Charging
• Distance and Contact Time
• Additional Infrastructure
• Proximity Alarm

Bay Charging

Some systems have smaller square tags that act as social distance alarms, giving the option to be worn on a wristband and a necklace. These smaller devices stay in a bay charging system when not in use. These InvisiShields are not issued directly to individuals but are a communal system where a visitor to a space picks out a tag for their time in the office or warehouse and then replaces it when leaving. The advantage of this type of proximity alarm is that it is small, easy to use, and anonymous. The tags remain on the premises.

• The disadvantages are:
• Limited battery life
• Lack of clear battery level indicator
• The users must have a wristband or lanyard available to hold the device.
• Small and easy to lose.
• No tracing of contacts unless you add in an extra system.
• Easy to use a different tag every day.

The Suntsu InvisiShield is issued on an individual basis to employees.

Distance and Contact Time

Other systems confine themselves to measuring only the distance between two tags and the amount of contact time. This feature restricts the use to the current pandemic social distancing application. The Suntsu InvisiShield is more adaptable to uses, including social distance monitoring and other information gathering like traffic in corridors and other meeting areas to provide planning data for improving the workplace for infection control and workflow.

Additional Infrastructure

Some other systems rely on a network of readers and tags for indoor tracking of individuals. This indoor positioning system involves extensive retrofitting of premises. Suntsu InvisiShields don’t need any readers or door mechanisms because they communicate directly with other tags, and the information collected can be downloaded onto a choice of devices.

Proximity Alarm

Proximity alarm systems vary between hepatic (vibrations), visible (flashing light), and audible (alarm buzzer or noise).

Suntsu InvisiShields offer all three options, set in combinations and ranges appropriate to workplace safety and coworker cohorts.

Indoor tracking is only as useful as the software that interprets the data. The standard technologies in indoor positioning systems include:

• Proximity- general location of a person or object.
• Wi-fi – but it requires a network of wi-fi points.
• UWB – may need beacons for some systems
• Acoustic – uses sound instead of radio pulses.
• Infrared – uses light instead of radio pulses.

Proximity Sensors

These systems use tags and beacons. There are two types of tag – dumb and smart. A dumb tag continually transmits its location but cannot receive information. A InvisiShield transmits and receives data. Dumb tags are inexpensive and transmit their identity to strategically positioned readers. The reader records identity and signal strength and passes this data to the software system that calculates each tag’s position. This system is known as a reader system.

A InvisiShield calculates its position and location with the information provided by reference points. This information relays through access points to the server. The reference points position at 100 feet intervals for effective data collection. This system is known as a reference system.

Both the reader and the reference system are inexpensive and found in manufacturing and healthcare applications. The system can track the location of the tags in a defined space. It cannot track the tags outside the designated area.

Wi-fi Indoor Tracking System

This tag is a wi-fi transmitter that sends data to wi-fi access points in the room or building. The access points note the identity, time, and signal strength of the transmission. An algorithm calculates the tag position. These systems are accurate (three to five meters), but to get a reading, you need the tag to contact three wi-fi access points. Unless the infrastructure is in place, this is an expensive solution as the tags are costly (Up to $60 each), and you need to fit the access points. Plus, they are not energy efficient compared with other solutions.

UWB Tracking Systems

An indoor system using UWB tags is super accurate in pinpointing a location. For an indoor tracking system, you use three or more UWB readers to transmit a wide radio pulse. This pulse provokes a responding ‘chirp’ from any UWB tags in the area. The ‘chirp’ is a burst of signal that the reader uses to record the time and identity with pinpoint accuracy in location. The tags are cheap, but the readers are more expensive to deploy. If you need to track an item with pinpoint accuracy, then UWB tracking systems are the best, but if you only need to know an approximate location, then other systems are more cost-effective.

Acoustic Tracking Systems

Instead of using a radio pulse, an ultrasonic pulse between tag and receiver works like the UWB tracking system. Acoustic tracking systems are currently a niche technology because it is difficult to retrofit an existing building as you need to wire in all the sensors. The advantage of an acoustic system is that it can quickly sort out direct signals from reflected signals. Any indoor tracking system sending a pulse of sound or radio will hit the receiver and walls. The receiver needs to sort out what is a direct signal and what is a reflection or echo. Acoustic technology is more efficient at solving this problem.

Suntsu InvisiShields offer all three options, set in combinations and ranges appropriate to workplace safety and coworker cohorts.

Infrared Tracking Systems

Instead of using sound or radio to track a tag, you and use light. It’s the same technology that lets a remote control turn your TV on and off. The operating principle is the same as other tag and reader systems. The tag emits an infrared pulse, and the reader picks it up. The significant advantage of a light-based system is that the light does not pass-through walls. A possibility with radio pulses is that it can pass through a wall. A reader in another room can pick up a weak radio pulse and give a false position. The infrared system guarantees that the tag is in the room. The infrared system’s disadvantage is that every ceiling needs a wired infrared reader – fine for newbuild, but expensive as a new install in an old building.

Ultra-wideband technology is more precise, reliable, and secure than wi-fi or Bluetooth, and it finds its way into many applications:

• Replacing keys for accessing your car, home, or office.
• Secure wireless payments from the phone in your pocket.
• Retail messages straight to your smartphone about the product you pass on the shelves.
• Track items in a factory, warehouse, or any indoor space.
• Athletic performance – track players across a sports field.
• Health – monitor biometric data and transmit over a distance.
• Navigation – get guided to the exact item you need in a warehouse.
• Emergency uses – check where all the tagged people are in the building.
• Internet of things – switch lights on and off and all other devices while you move about.
• Ground monitoring – predicting potential landslips in vulnerable areas.

Accurate communication of your location in relation to an object allows more intuitive and helpful applications ranging from switching on your music when you enter a room, starting your car engine without a key, or coaching a football team to work together in pursuit of the ball.

Wireless Monitors

Wireless technology like UWB is ideal for monitoring roles – from medical applications like respiration, heart rate, or industrial process like measuring a liquid’s pressure in a pipe. The UWB chip doesn’t monitor temperature and air quality – you need a specific application sensor for that function. The UWB chip enables reliable, accurate communication between the monitoring device and another device like a control panel – wirelessly. Combining UWB chips with sensors means you can monitor almost any process wirelessly and remotely in the right environment.

Signaling of the New York City Subway

Signaling on a railway system as complex as the New York City Subway is a weak spot in keeping passengers safe and trains moving – until the roll-out of Communications-Based train control. The New York subway was the first train operator to embrace wireless technology. Real-time location system data gives control center staff an accurate view of where the trains are in relation to signals and stations. UWB chip technology means that team has more information and control over the system, and the bonus is that commuters get accurate real-time information on when their train will arrive at their station.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology (Military Use)

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) creates two- or three-dimensional images or reconstructions of a landscape. Airborne systems on satellites or planes use UWB pulses to map landscapes with astonishing detail. The applications are vast – everything from glaciation to urban sprawl. The “synthetic” refers to the small actual radar antenna synthesizing a larger antenna’s effect by creating a larger footprint on the survey ground. This increased aperture is possible because the radar moves while continually emitting and receiving pulses that map the features below. This technology’s cost restricted first use to military reconnaissance and surveying, but reducing costs is increasing applications for civilian use like mineral exploration and environmental research.

Medical Applications

Real-time information from sensors in and on the body provides medical professionals and patients with crucial real-time information. Applications linking with smartphones that allow people with diabetes to monitor their blood sugar levels painlessly are examples of UWB technology making life easier.

InvisiShields ensure that the right patient matches the correct record for medication, operations, blood groups, and treatment processes – these are more reliable than paper records that can be delayed, lost, or mismatched. Plus, the records are always with the patient and ready to access by a medical professional.

Other medical applications include remote monitoring – allowing patients to receive health care in their own homes with neither the doctor nor the patient spending time traveling. Location tracking for vulnerable patients and finding staff is a useful function and new ways of delivering better healthcare with technology are under continuous development.