Imagine a tower that many other people go through in their affairs. Sensors monitor the environment, detecting the use of cabins, function rooms, kitchens and bathrooms. Knowledge shows which spaces are underutilized and what the activity hot spots are, helping cleaners and facility managers prioritize cleaning.
This is one of the many uses of the Internet of Things (IoT) generation in the office that happened to the COVID-19 crisis. Employers can use IoT-connected devices and programs to prioritize cleanup, alert workers when they are too close to each other, decrease overcrowding, and run into infections.
Several organizations were already using, or planning to use, IoT to monitor their workplaces before the pandemic. For example, Australian telecommunications company NNNCo supplies long low-power networks (LPNS) and responds to monitor appliances and provide alerts if staff get too close to harmful machinery or enter harmful areas.
“We don’t see the pandemic creating means or needs to monitor things or other people in relation to things that weren’t previously on the charts,” says NNNCo CEO Rob Zagarella.
But the pandemic has been a catalyst for paints in this area. NNNCo has explored instances of use similar to COVID-19 for the LoRaWAN LPWAN network painting protocol, adding proximity tracking and people counting. These use cases have attracted the interest of a giant company, structured corporations, asset control corporations and consulting firms. Hospitals and senior care facilities are also users.
“It’s an herbal extension to look at other people compared to other people, such as their distance from each other and how many are in a place at a given time and day. We’ve been working on those kinds of use cases,” Zagarella says.
The fitness crisis has also led to new LPWAN solutions. NNNCo brought a proximity tracking application to the Belgian company ClearDigital NV in Australia and incorporated it into its N2N-DL knowledge aggregation platform. The application, built using ClearDigital NV’s WMV framework, alerts staff using compatible devices (NNNCo offers it as a component of a solution that includes an Abeeway Micro Tracker) when they are not kept away from other people, appliances or spaces outside the limits. .
NNNCo is also running programs that a hospital can use to reduce the threat of workers entering certain spaces without following mandatory protocols. And in the U.S. And the UK, some hospitals are using LoRaWAN responses to monitor bed occupancy and wait when cleaning will be needed, according to a recent LoRa Alliance webinar. LoRaWAN’s responses would also be used on military bases, prisons and public transport.
Privacy and security
These responses raise apparent privacy concerns. NNNCo states that non-public privacy is maintained because the solution alerts others who use a device when they get too close without identifying the person or storing location data.
Data can be displayed at the branch or at an individual point to a ClearDigital NV spokesperson.
Privacy issues have not deterred some leading organizations, such as PwC and Amazon, from exploring the use of reach responses at their overseas locations. In Belgium, the port of Antwerp is testing the use of a virtual wristband for proximity detection and tactile search. And a school district and colleges in the United States would test tracking labels.
In Australia, interest in real-time knowledge to manage resources and save and respond to crises is growing, according to NNNCo. Outside the paint site, he painted with a water branch in a tension tracking solution in the water pipes, in order to temporarily identify the disorders so that paint crews can use their time more efficiently.
“This has evidently been going on for some time. But recently, while sending a team on one site was a challenge, it made even more sense to have this information,” Zagarella says. LoRaWAN’s responses also exist for utilities of electric power: LoRaWAN-integrated parafoudres can monitor power lines to detect lightning movements that can cause fires.
With regard to the protection of workers, Zagarella states that “knowing and understanding where other persons are in relation to assets, especially the personnel for which they seek protection, are of genuine interest to asset owners.”
Since the arrival of COVID-19, employers have obtained more resources for this.
NNNCo is a sponsor of this COVID-19 center.
It is being developed on the use of real-time knowledge in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. See our special policy on key issues.