Bluetooth SIG Working to Include Wearables in ENS Contact Tracing
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group is working on a specification to enable wearables to use smartphone-based exposure notification system (ENS) protocols, it said Tuesday. Public ENSs, deployed by government health agencies, have used Bluetooth technology embedded in smartphones to notify…
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people when they have been in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Smartphones alone aren’t a practical approach to cover all segments of the population, it said. “Several population groups critical to managing the spread" of COVID-19 have “relatively low smartphone penetration, presenting a coverage challenge" for ENSs, said Elisa Resconi, physics professor at the Technical University of Munich. She's researching non-pharmaceutical interventions against COVID-19. Wearables could be an effective way to extend the reach of an ENS, she said. More than 130 Bluetooth member companies joined the ENS working group to define a standard.