Leash It offers Covid-19 contact tracing via IoT

By Stuart Corner of IoT Australia

Australian company Leash It, which provides Bluetooth-based tracking technology for assets and individuals, has evolved its technology to provide contact tracing of workers in places such as construction sites, hospitals and factories.

Leash It founder and CEO, Tony Lotzof told IoTAustralia that the technology could avoid a workplace being shut down as the result of a Covic-19 infection.

“We were recently contacted by a 50 floor construction site where a single contractor found out they had tested positive for Covid-19, the site had to completely shut down sending 2,500 staff home to be isolated for 14 days,” Lotzof said.

“If that site had our LeashView solution installed and all staff had worn a Leash tag on a lanyard around their necks or in their hard hat, the site manager would have easily been able to see the movements of that contractor while on site and been able to immediately shut down only those specific areas the contractor had been in, as well as isolate only staff that came into direct contact with the contractor.”

Identifying potential infection points

He said the company had adapted its asset tracking solution to be able to do staff tracking in response to the Coronavirus crisis. “I can see exactly which areas they were in. I can see exactly who else was in those areas at the same time. And I can see exactly which assets were in that area. So I can go and sterilise that area, and those assets.”

The LeashView system comprises Bluetooth low energy tags worn by staff or attached to each asset to be tracked, Bluetooth gateways connected over WiFi or ethernet deployed throughout the facility, and back end software accessed via browser that enable people and assets to be tracked and reports to be generated.

The system can be set to notify individuals or management -via SMS or email if someone enters a prohibited area, and to raise an alert if the number of people per room suggests a conflict with social distancing requirements.

Asset tracking saves money

Outside the constraints imposed by Covid-19. Leash It says LeashView can save a large organisation such as a hospital considerable sums by reducing the time spent locating moveable assets. It cites the results of survey that found nurses in a large hospital spent, on average, at least 30 minutes location items of equipment.

Lotzof said the system was already installed in hospitals in Victoria and in the Middle East, and could be up and running in a couple of days using digital images of a building’s floor plans to provide, via a browser, to location of every tagged individual or tagged asset.

“It is very cost-effective. The gateway for each room costs $80, the tags cost between $5 and $20, and the monthly tracking is only $2 per tag.”

He said the company was working with a number of channel partners to take the product to market.

Stuart Corner is editor of IoT Australia

Subscribe to our free @AuManufacturing newsletter here.