An Indian engineering student has built “Kawach”, a small pendent-like device, that might protect citizens from getting infected by the deadly COVID-19.
Prabin Kumar Das is a student of Lovely Professional University (LPU) which is located in Punjab. The engineering student noticed that despite so many warnings by health organizations like the WHO and the CDCs, people were finding it difficult to maintain the mandatory one-meter distance from each other. So, to remind people about the safe distancing, he made “Kawach”.
“Kawach”, Hindi for “shield”, is a pendent-like device that can be worn by a user around the neck. Now, it comes equipped with a lot of hardware. There is a vibrator, an LED, a controller, a battery, an ultrasonic sensor, and a human body temperature sensor.
“Kawach” can do a lot of things for the user. First of all, with the help of the ultrasonic sensor, it can detect any other individual within one meter of the wearer and consequently glows and vibrates to let the user know. This feature is the USP of the product and can help citizens maintain a safe distance from each other to prevent the spread of the virus.
Apart from this feature, “Kawach” can also remind the user to wash his/her hands every 30 minutes by vibrating. It can also warn the user when his/her body temperature rises. For this, the device uses the human body temperature sensor (obviously!) to monitor body temperature. When the body temperature of the user surpasses the limit, the device sends a warning SMS to the user’s smartphone.