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Luca: The app was co-developed by the musician Smudo, among others
Photo: Friedrich Stark / imago images
»When there's a fire, you don't ask: Who invents the fire extinguisher?
We have the fire extinguisher there, it's ready and it can now be used. ”Smudo, musician of Fantastischen Vier, used sentences like these to advertise the Luca app, which he helped develop, on the talk show“ Anne Will ”on Sunday evening.
The show's concept was evidently well received by viewers.
In any case, the creators of the app soon tweeted: “Wow, we're overwhelmed.
That was a bit of a download in a very short time. ”Which meant: The app was temporarily disabled, as shown by user screenshots.
It wasn't until later in the evening that the creators got the message that the system was running again as usual: “We're back!
That was an incredible number of registration requests in a short time. "
A response from SPIEGEL about how many app downloads there were on Sunday evening and how many users installed the app in total has not yet been answered.
It is difficult to estimate how big the run on the app really was - and how quickly the technology behind it is overloaded.
Google's Play Store lists the app so far with more than 100,000 installations.
From this it can at least be seen that the total number of downloads on Android is somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000.
That is what the app promises
The free app, which Smudo had already presented to CDU chairman Armin Laschet last week, will soon convince with more than just good marketing.
The operating company Culture4Live states that it wants to enable "quick and complete contact tracking".
For this, the Luca makers want to win as many organizers as possible, but also health authorities as partners.
There are currently only a few regions in which there are collaborations with health authorities, for example on Sylt, Amrum and Föhr or in Schwerin and Rostock.
As a result, the app can basically only be used in those places as it is intended.
The approach of the app provides that users check in and out using a QR code, for example when going to a restaurant or concert.
It is said that your own contact details are transmitted in encrypted form.
Unlike the Corona warning app, the Luca app is not an open source solution that allows third parties to check the technical security.
If, for example, a restaurant visitor later tests positive for the coronavirus, that user can voluntarily pass on the contact history created via the app to the responsible health department.
The health department, in turn, which in this case should also be able to decrypt the transmitted contact data unlike the restaurant operator or third party, could then easily contact other Luca users who were in the same restaurant.
In the Luca system itself, users initially register with their mobile phone number.
You want to make the sources of infection visible
Smudo said of "Anne Will" that it was about making the foci of infection visible.
The Robert Koch Institute's corona warning app is "not as successful as desired".
Even the documentation requirement, which applies to restaurants, among other things, has not yet worked as it should, according to the musician.
Luca now wants to digitize the process of checking in and checking out, but go one step further, including by allowing health authorities to transfer the contact histories of infected people directly into their system and thus be able to find out more quickly who was still in the restaurant.
According to Smudo's presentation, this means that shoe boxes full of registration slips do not have to be brought to the office and evaluated there by hand.
The musician believes that contact tracking can gain speed as a result, and he can also imagine using the app in individual blocks in the stadium or on the track.
In principle, the software can also be used to track private meetings such as birthday parties.
As with the Corona warning app, it will also be the case with the Luca app that its use will increasingly make more sense if it is used by as many users as possible.
For this, the operators, which include a spin-off from the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) and Smudo called the neXenio, also the other members of the Fantastischen Vier, above all need further partnerships with health authorities.
If you want to know whether the app creators have already entered into such a partnership at your location, you can find out by entering your postcode on the Luca website.
Luca is available for Android and iOS and in the form of a web app that can be used via a browser.
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