Billions of people have smartphones, but not everyone has them, and they are not the only smart devices that people have access to. Older people, and young children, have valid reasons for not owning one, which excludes them from the telephone-based contact trace systems currently in place. This may reduce the overall effectiveness of preventing further spread of COVID-19, bringing the Bluetooth Special Interest Group into action. The SIG is the body that manages the wireless standard, and seeks to broaden how its application for contact traces works to accommodate portable and phones.
It has announced that it is starting to look at a way to enable wearables to participate in exposure notification systems. The idea is to leave smartwatches, fitness trackers and even Bluetooth wristbands to be part of the contact tracking network. That way, currently disconnected groups such as children and people in care homes could be tracked without them all buying a new phone. For example, a child wearing a Fitbit could go about their day, downloading the data to their parent’s phone when they come home from school.
