Innovative way to combat COVID-19 spread! Indian Railways’ Southern zone develops social distancing device

Once it is fully charged, the device will be active for more than twelve hours.

Indian Railways comes up with an innovative device to combat COVID-19! As social distancing is being observed at railway stations and all other public places to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, the Thiruvananthapuram Division under the Southern Railway zone has developed a device, which would remind people about social distancing. According to Southern Railways, the device has been designed with special consideration to the safety of on-duty Indian Railways’ employees. The device would warn with an alarm sound if two or more people wearing the Social Distancing Ensuring Device come within a distance of two-three metres. The device would continue to produce the alarm sound until they maintain a distance of above three meters.

The device comes at an affordable price of less than Rs 800. This device is rechargeable and it can be recharged with a charger. Once it is fully charged, the device will be active for more than twelve hours. The Social Distancing Ensuring Device is made up of NRF24L01 transceiver, Arduino pro-mini. The device has been designed and developed by R Nidheej, JE/Sig/TCR.

Salient features of the device:

• It has a detection range of two-three meters
• For detection, RF signals are used, therefore, no line of sight is required between the devices
• In a single charge, the device can work for more than 12 hours
• It has Arduino Pro-Mini based design
• The low-cost device is easy to use
• It has low weight, just 30 grams

Working and Block description of the device:

• The device includes a single chip radio transceiver- NRF24L01, for the worldwide 2.4 – 2.5 GHz ISM band. The single-chip radio transceiver comprises of a fully integrated frequency synthesizer, a crystal oscillator, a demodulator, a modulator, a power amplifier and Enhanced Shock Burst protocol engine. Through an SPI interface, output power, frequency channels, and protocol setup are easily programmable. The consumption of current is very low. Its built-in Power Down as well as Standby modes make power-saving easily realizable.
• The device has Arduino Pro Mini, which is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328. It has as many as 14 digital input/output pins, an on-board resonator, a reset button, six analog inputs and holes for mounting pin headers. The Pro Mini has two versions- one runs at 3.3V and 8 MHz, while the other at 5V and 16 MHz.
• The device has 7V 500mAH Lithium Polymer Battery, which is a Lipo Rechargeable Battery. It is also known as Lipo or Lipoly batteries that are light, thin and powerful. The capacity of this battery is 500mAH.
• When two Social Distancing Ensuring devices come within a range of two-three meters, the Pezo buzzer will produce sound, and the RED LED will produce RED indication.