CoronaHack

A vision-enhancing IoT wearable for post-COVID urban space navigation

TYPE
Speculative IoT product design
DURATION
Apr 2020 - Nov 2020
ROLE
Design technologist
CONTRIBUTION
Hardware engineering (physical computing, rapid prototyping, digital fabrication, 3D modeling)
Software engineering (cloud computing, data visualization)
TEAM
Individual
OUTCOME
Student Award, Media Architecture Biennale: Futures Implied (MAB20)
FutureLab, West Bund Artistic Center
NYU ITP Show

Overview

Context
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us to reconsider and reframe our experience in urban space navigation. Accessing spaces where large numbers of people are present and interact in rather close proximity is considered to be a potential threat to the greater good. To alleviate the spread of COVID-19, certain measures are implemented by governments worldwide: the UK's attempt through herd immunity is proven ineffective and unable to properly contain the spread. In cases where measures have demonstrated tangible solutions such as China’s well-established health code system with temperature-scanning in entrances to public spaces, they still fail to provide a transparent intelligence, as the implementation is only accessible to government agencies.

CoronaHack is a vision-enhancing IoT wearable for accessible, equitable urban space navigation. It intends to empower people by granting them access to COVID-19 data collections, challenging the information asymmetry between the government and the general public. By utilizing a thermal imaging system and an IoT-activated communication network, geolocation and temperature readings that are above the acceptable threshold are automatically logged into the database and visualized on the publicly accessible front-end (web app). Users can receive the data layer of virus spread directly on their mobile devices, being offered the intelligence on how to safely navigate the urban space.

Impact
This project won the Student Award in Media Architecture Biennale 2020: Futures Implied, hosted by Digital Futures, in the Citizens’ Digital Rights in the Era of Platform Ecologies category.

Demo

Research

As of March 2020, the prevention and control measures as stated in the Protocol for Prevention and Control of COVID-19, Edition 6, released by the Chinese CDC, emphasizes heavily on precision prevention. China’s first movement history tracing system through mobile phones was launched on Feb 11, 2020 by Alipay. While an early study suggests that the health QR code had helped control the spread of Covid-19 in China, the effectively compulsory use of the QR code and the apparently unconstrained collection of personal information and data for the system have caused some major concerns about its potential for misuse or abuse at the expense of individual rights. Among these is a serious question concerning the protection of privacy in China, where a right balance between its protection and the need for safeguarding public health is yet to be established.

Synthesis

I empathized with the general public’s feeling of lack of privacy and transparency throughout the precision prevention protocol as Chinese. CoronaHack is thus designed to focus on how the navigation experience during COVID-19 can be more accessible and inclusive, making users feel safer and empowered. The wearer is able to detect body temperatures of others who are approaching, and will be warned immediately if any abnormal temperature is detected. When a warning is triggered, the wearer can log the individual’s geolocation data to the cloud and see a map visualization in real time which has open access to any individual on any device.

OPPORTUNITY

How might we redesign an urban navigation experience during COVID-19 for Chinese citizens that fosters equity and information transparency?

Design Engineering

Media architecture

Physical computing
Please visit this GitHub markdown for code and detailed technical documentation.

Arduino
Below screenshots are some presets in Arduino in which libraries, credentials, and variables for thermal camera sensor, TFT display, ultrasonic sensor, piezo, WIFI and MQTT are included and defined.

‍Frontend Development & Cloud Computing
MQTT broker receives the data from server backend, and with socket.io we send the data to the frontend.

Below shows how data received from the MQTT broker is visualized on an interactive map supported by leaflet library. Human figures who are "logged" by the wearer will appear as circles on the map. The higher (lower) the temperature is, the larger (smaller) and the more red (blue) the circles is.

The TFT display screen remains black when the user is keeping a good social distance from the others. If the distance between the wearer and surrounding people exceeds the threshold, TFT display will start presenting thermal imaging environment to the wearer.Below shows how average temperature is calculated according to how much red is received from the thermal camera sensor. If the average temperature exceeds the threshold, meaning the human subject is detected to have an abnormal body temperature, CoronaHack triggers warnings.

We can get the user ID, temperature information when hovering on each data point on the map. The map can be hosted by heroku and anyone can access the map with the data visualization on any smart device.

Prototype & Design

Ideation V 1.0 to V 3.0 were designed with limited resources during the remote learning semester due to COVID-19. Each idea begins with a sketch and is then tested with assorted sensors and microcontrollers on a low fidelity prototype wearable. Prototypes were made out of cardboards, metal wires, and cloth.

V 1.0

V 2.0

V 3.0‍

V 4.0
This is a high fidelity prototype of V 3.0, designed from scratch in Fusion 360 with 3 rounds of fine-tuning, 3D-printed on an Ultimaker with PLA.

Reflect

I started this project during the pandemic lockdown where access to resources was extremely limited. I learned how to create 3D models from scratch in Fusion 360 according to my specific design need through Andy and self-teaching. I also familiarized myself with cloud computing using socket.io and MQTT. I couldn't make this amazing project happen without the mentorship from Stavoros Didakis during my remote semester and help from Andy Garcia later in the year.

I am honored to exhibit my project in Media Architecture Biennale 2020: Futures Implied hosted by Digital Futures, receiving the student award in category: Citizens’ Digital Rights in the Era of Platform Ecologies. It marks a great accomplishment of this challenging yet rewarding journey!

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