Smart epidemic tunnel: IoT-based sensor-fusion assistive technology for COVID-19 disinfection

• Published in: International journal of pervasive computing and communications Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 376 - 387
• Main Authors: Pandya, Sharnil, Sur, Anirban, Kotecha, Ketan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bingley Emerald Group Publishing Limited 25.07.2022
• Subjects: Adaptive technology; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Design; Disinfection; Disinfection & disinfectants; Epidemics; Experimentation; Handicapped assistance devices; Health Informatics; Human motion; Hälsoinformatik; Infections; Medical equipment; Medical research; Motion perception; Pandemics; Performance evaluation; Photovoltaic cells; Programvaruteknik; Sanitizers; Sensors; Society; Software Technology; Solar cells; Solar energy; Symbiosis; Tunnels; Viral diseases
• DOI: 10.1108/IJPCC-07-2020-0091
• ISSN: 1742-7371; 1742-738X

Purpose>The purpose of the presented IoT based sensor-fusion assistive technology for COVID-19 disinfection termed as “Smart epidemic tunnel” is to protect an individual using an automatic sanitizer spray system equipped with a sanitizer sensing unit based on individual using an automatic sanitizer spray system equipped with a sanitizer sensing unit based on human motion detection.Design/methodology/approach>The presented research work discusses a smart epidemic tunnel that can assist an individual in immediate disinfection from COVID-19 infections. The authors have presented a sensor-fusion-based automatic sanitizer tunnel that detects a human using an ultrasonic sensor from the height of 1.5 feet and disinfects him/her using the spread of a sanitizer spray. The presented smart tunnel operates using a solar cell during the day time and switched to a solar power-bank power mode during night timings using a light-dependent register sensing unit.Findings>The investigation results validate the performance evaluation of the presented smart epidemic tunnel mechanism. The presented smart tunnel can prevent or disinfect an outsider who is entering a particular building or a premise from COVID-19 infection possibilities. Furthermore, it has also been observed that the presented sensor-fusion-based mechanism can disinfect a person in a time of span of just 10 s. The presented smart epidemic tunnel is embedded with an intelligent sanitizer sensing unit which stores the essential information in a cloud platform such as Google Fire-base. Thus, the proposed system favours society by saving time and helps in lowering the spread of coronavirus. It also provides daily, weekly and monthly reports of the counts of individuals, along with in-out timestamps and power usage reports.Practical implications>The presented system has been designed and developed after the lock-down period to disinfect an individual from the possibility of COVID-19 infections.Social implications>The presented smart epidemic tunnel reduced the possibility by disinfecting an outside individual/COVID-19 suspect from spreading the COVID-19 infections in a particular building or a premise.Originality/value>The presented system is an original work done by all the authors which have been installed at the Symbiosis Institute of Technology premise and have undergone rigorous experimentation and testing by the authors and end-users.