[LINK] Aspen Medical Selling Smart Badges for COVID-19

[Tom Worthington]

Australian company, Aspen Medical made their name providing medical 
services in disaster zones around the world, and more lately built an 
emergency COVID-19 hospital in Canberra very quickly. They are now 
selling a Smart Badge for contact tracing. 
https://www.aspenmedical.com/news/news/aspen-medical-signs-exclusive-agreement-distribute-smart-badge-wearable-devices

The idea is that each person at a workplace, or entertainment venue, 
wears a watch sized device which tracks where they go and who they go 
near. It will beep if you get too close to someone. 
https://www.smartbadge.com.au/

Smart badges do have their limitations. I visited Andy Hopper at the 
AT&T/Olivetti/Oracle Research Laboratory in Cambridge, who developed 
such technology. http://cam-orl.co.uk/ab.html

In theory everyone at the lab wore an "active badge" all the time. But I 
just followed someone in who had one and up to a very surprised 
receptionist. Some staff found the devices intrusive, and left them in a 
drawer, only using them like a key when needed. Here is a video of a 
very young Andy demonstrating the badge:
https://youtu.be/-vQ48S1IVD4


-- 
Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au