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Corona bracelet from Kiel:
The federal government is investing 100,000 euros in the project
Photo: Benjamin Walczak / Groschendreher.de
The Ministry of Health does not want to rely on the Corona warning app alone to break chains of infection.
So that people without or with a smartphone that is too old can be informed about risk contacts, the federal government is investing in research into a warning armband that scientists from Christian Albrechts University in Kiel have been developing together with a social association and an internet agency since July.
The bracelet looks like a fitness tracker, but has only one function: inform the wearer whether they have come too close to a person who tested positive for Covid-19 for a critical time.
This is the same task that the government's corona warning app does.
The current state of development sounds promising: From a purely technical point of view, everything works, says computer science professor Olaf Landsiedel from Kiel University in an interview with SPIEGEL.
"The warning bracelet is 100 percent compatible with the app."
The suitability for everyday use is now to be tested in a pilot project.
As the »Welt« reports, up to 1000 wristbands will be distributed in nursing and old people's homes in Kiel in the coming weeks to check whether the wristband exchanges data with smartphones in its environment in the desired manner.
Among other things, infection chains should be traceable in this way.
Less than half of the elderly have a smartphone
The decision to test the device first in nursing homes and old people's homes is no coincidence: The armband is primarily aimed at seniors who do not have a smartphone on which they can install the Corona warning app.
According to Statista, just 41 percent of people over 65 years of age use a smartphone.
The Ministry of Health is investing 100,000 euros in the project.
A spokeswoman said on request that various options are being examined to expand access to the Corona app.
"Those who wear the armband should be recognized as contacts by the Corona Warning app and, conversely, the armband should recognize contacts with other armbands and smartphones." should be.
That it is a bracelet does not seem to be decisive for the ministry.
The government cares about the technology behind it.
"The focus of the funding is on technical and procedural interoperability with the Corona warning app as well as user acceptance," said the spokeswoman.
Up to two weeks of battery life
The hardware under the mirrored plastic cap is manageable: A circuit board, a Bluetooth chip and a multi-colored LED are in the waterproof housing.
According to the scientists, the battery currently lasts three days, but the runtime is to be extended to up to two weeks.
The Zephyr Linux operating system controls the components and ensures that key codes are sent and received regularly.
The researchers had already tested the technology in September with around 300 bracelets at Kiel Week.
"Everything went smoothly there," says Landsiedel.
Now it is a matter of trying out how people accept the bracelet and whether improvements can be made from the pilot phase.
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Technology for around 20 euros:
the battery in the warning bracelet should last up to two weeks
Photo: Benjamin Walczak / Groschendreher.de
Among other things, the test runs also revealed social hurdles.
The researchers still have to clarify how the wearer of the bracelet is warned if a risky contact is reported.
After all, nobody wants the LED to suddenly light up red when shopping, says the IT expert.
One solution could be that the warning light only shows a certain color sequence when charging.
A light code should also inform the user when the battery is empty.
A rather big problem, however, is that the tape does not have direct access to the Internet.
But this is necessary for the comparison of the encounter data.
Only then can the bracelet determine whether a contact has tested positive in the meantime.
But the researchers have not provided a WLAN receiver or a cellular module for the bracelet.
The reason: This is the only way to achieve a unit price of around 20 euros.
The data synchronization must therefore take place via a detour: Currently portable computers update the data via Bluetooth.
After the pilot phase, according to the scientists, the updates could be imported via tablets by carers or via computer stations at central locations such as town halls.
It also gets really tricky when the wearer of a bracelet becomes infected with Sars-Cov-2.
The device lacks a camera to scan the QR code sent by the health department with the confirmation of infection in such a case.
"At the moment it can only be done on demand," says Olaf Landsiedel.
But this method will hardly be able to be implemented in practice, since infected users should remain undetected.
The IT professor says: "This is one of the challenges that we still have to solve when we switch from a telephone that costs hundreds of euros to a 20-euro bracelet."
Icon: The mirror
