An application that utilizes beacons to accurately follow the path of COVID-19 has been developed by a South Korean company. It is also expected to resolve concerns about infringement of personal information as it drastically reduces amount of time and cost and number of personnel that are required for the current epidemiological studies.
YAP Company (CEO An Kyeong-hoon) announced on Thursday that it has developed an “K-Coronavirus notification” application and is currently in discussions with local government groups, small businesses, and government agencies regarding providing the application to them. Some local governments have already shown their desires to use the company’s application. The company also signed contracts with owners of small businesses such as cafes, restaurants, and karaoke.
The K-Coronavirus notification application is integrated with the company’s indoor and outdoor positioning technology. Based on about 50,000 beacons in South Korea, the application combines location-based technologies such as Wi-Fi, GPS, Geofence, ultrasonic wave, and Bluetooth. The company currently has about 70 patents related to positioning technology in South Korea and other countries.
The application installs beacons in high-risk areas such as multi-use facilities where close contact can occur. Its users can simply down the application without having to enter their personal information. The app randomly creates IDs and it sends telephone numbers of people with COVID-19 or people who come into close contact with people with COVID-19 to corresponding authorities after receiving a consent from them. It is able to immediately sort people who come into close contact, sends a notification, and changes the color of the screen of their application depending on whether they have the virus or not.
YAP Company collaborated with Sogang University and Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology while utilizing its original technology related to position awareness and it has upgraded the application. The company has applied latest technologies such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) and blockchain to the application. The application creates information on location and time as random IDs and it stores the IDs into a server through LTE network and uses blockchain technology to perform distributed processing. As a result, it is impossible for outsiders to access personal information and information on location and time.
The company explained that beacon-based positioning technology is far superior in terms of accuracy, convenience, and personal information protection compared to other technologies.
A beacon regularly sends sound that cannot be heard with one’s hearing and it accurately sort a person or people who were in the same space at the same time. On the other hand, a GPS has a margin of error that ranges from 30 meters to 150 meters and it categorizes people from another room or another building as people who come into close contact with the virus. As a result, it causes epidemiological studies to be lengthened.
Beacon-based positioning technology also solves an issue that the current base station-based epidemiological studies is facing where one’s personal information and contact tracing are sent to authorities regardless of whether he or she came into close contact with the virus or not. YAP Company’s app does not provide any personal information other than random IDs that it creates and it also ask for one’s consent before identifying the person as a confirmed case or a person who came into close contact with the virus.
The app also solves any inconvenience that QR code-based methods creates as they require a person to scan his or her QR code every time he or she enters the building. It turns the color of one’s application into green, blue, red, or yellow depending on his current status. It becomes difficult for users with a risk of infection to enter multi-use facilities, and the application induces them to get a test immediately. Because the application sends a notification to those who come into close contact with a person with the virus in real time, it drastically reduces time that is required for preventing an infectious disease.
The South Korean government can also reduce number of personnel in charge of preventing an infectious disease by using the application as it can conduct epidemiological studies on those who came into some sort of contact with the virus with just a single click.
Inspectors can simply click whether a person has the virus or not within the application’s system. Because a notification is sent automatically to those with the virus and those who came into close contact with the virus, YAP Company expects that there can be a COVID-19 response system set up voluntarily by the people in South Korea as inspection offices do not have to call people who came into close contact with the virus one by one and request them to have a test.
Once the app is used nationwide, a system that is able to act immediately against other new infectious diseases besides COVID-19 can be set up. The app is able to sort people with the corresponding disease and those who come into close contact with the disease in real time and send notifications immediately as soon as necessary tests are completed. It can also improve a situation where shops in which people with the disease did not make a visit do not have to close down due to a concern about spread of the disease.
IT infrastructure for an early end to COVID-19 can be prepared once beacons are set up at 2 million critical control points in South Korea and users download the application from YAP Company. Not only does the infrastructure reduce any burden or fatigue for personnel in charge of epidemiological studies, it also establishes a foundation that can respond to new or mutated infectious diseases in the future. This is a reason why small businesses that are wishing for normal operation are requesting the South Korean government to introduce the app nationwide.
YAP Company is working on informing the private and the private sectors about its application. Regarding the private sector, it plans to cover demands through data vouchers and contact-free vouchers that it secured in the past and provide an added service additionally to about 50,000 stores where beacons are installed. Regarding the public sector, it made a suggestion to the government of having beacons installed at multi-use facilities utilizing the budgets set aside for prevention of infectious diseases and informatization.
“After focusing on development of positioning technology for the past even years, I realized that the company’s technologies can make a contribution in ending the pandemic early.” said CEO An of YAP Company. “By informing others about our application, we are going to do our best so that our country can overcome difficulties caused by the virus.”
Staff Reporter Oh, Dain | ohdain@etnews.com