The hot topic in the last months is the pandemic. We completely changed our routines because of Covid-19 and, now, we are watching the reopening of commerce. Malls, stores, bars, and restaurants can now open their doors in many states, even with restricted hours.
Now the game is quite different from before. It is necessary to follow a series of recommendations such as capacity management, the distance between people, mandatory use of masks, and the availability of hand sanitizer for everyone. Some establishments went further and started, for example, to measure people’s temperature.
We don’t need to talk much more about this scenario because there’s plenty of information about it, but we want to talk about what we like the most: the Internet of Things.
How can IoT help the pandemic?
To be honest, only the vaccine can really help. But while we continuously vaccinate the global population, technology can help (a lot) in increasing the security of procedures and recommendations. And you, the developer, are a fundamental part of putting into practice IoT projects capable of facilitating these processes. Starting with projects using sensors to:
- Capacity management: it is not practical to manually control the number of people who can or cannot enter your store, for example. You may need to have a person responsible for this count. In this case, with a simple IoT project, you can automate this control. Just place sensors at the entrance of the shop.
- Temperature measurement: many places have one person measuring everyone’s body temperature. This process can also be automated with sensors at the entrance.
- Air quality and ventilation: this is an important and little-explored point. It is necessary to ensure that there is enough ventilation, and placing sensors at strategic points can help with this control.
The use of biometric tools can also provide several advantages in this moment of pandemic and post-pandemic. With them it is possible, for example, to control the use of sanitizer dispensers or even implement facial recognition to access places. This new access reduces the need for touching and, consequently, the exposure to Covid-19. Interestingly, this sensor can help control the use of masks at the same time.
IoT projects can also make sure that people are distant enough or supervise the use of masks. If we want to go further, we can talk about the numerous advantages of using IoT to automate all the information of patients admitted to hospitals – thus, the direct contact of healthcare professionals is reduced and, consequently, the risk of contamination.
The pandemic has accelerated many trends, and things that would take years to be applied are already a reality. The use of the Internet of Things can help a lot in this new reality and you can create new applications. Anything you can imagine, the Internet of Things can help to accomplish. Is it easy? Not always, but to support you in this journey, we created EUGENIO, an on-demand IoT platform. Try it for free and see how easy it is to design these projects with us. .
