Ontario funding wearable contact tracing

The Ontario government is providing Facedrive Inc. with $2.5 million to help it manufacture wearable contact tracing devices.

TraceSCAN alerts users within a workplace who have been in close contact with individuals who have tested positive for Covid-19.

The company anticipates manufacturing about 150,000 devices under this project and creating 68 new jobs, including software, firmware and hardware engineers and machine learning specialists.

Facedrive developed TraceSCAN’s made-in-Ontario AI-powered solution in partnership with the University of Waterloo.

Workers simply wear the device and the wearable Bluetooth technology will communicate with others within a workplace environment. If users are less than six feet apart, the device beeps to alert the users.

If anyone in the working premises reports Covid-19 positive, HR or health and safety officials can log in to the online reporting dashboard and see who they have been in contact with and their risk level, then send an exposure notification. Contact tracing will be made simple with all of the close proximity contact having been recorded.

The technology is designed to help mitigate the spread of Covid-19 for workplaces and settings where smartphone use is limited or prohibited, such as airlines, schools, construction sites, and long-term care homes. It will add another layer of safety and protection through identification and isolation of new COVID-19 cases, tracing back the interactions and helping to stop the contamination.

TraceSCAN has already been deployed in multiple pilot projects, leading to the successful adoption of the technology in real-world settings. Some of the businesses and organizations that are using TraceSCAN include Air Canada, LiUNA and Waywayseecappo First Nation. The company is working to expand to other industries, such as recreation, travel, manufacturing, and food processing.

Facedrive Inc. is a Scarborough, Ontario-based technology company founded in 2016. It delivers a range of products and services, including ride sharing, food delivery, wearable health tech solutions, electric vehicle subscriptions, and a social networking platform.