BUKIT MERTAJAM: The Penang branch of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), in collaboration with the Kulim branch of Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) MSI, has produced a tracking device known as Social Distancing Sensor (SDS).
This device is especially useful for the members of the public to maintain the one-metre social distancing from one another as suggested by health authorities following the spread of Covid-19.
Project head and UiTM Penang branch Business Management senior lecturer Mohd Subri Tahir said the SDS was an improvement on an innovative product called Object Distance Detection System (ODDS) that could detect distances from one centimetre to 10,000cm (or 100 metres).
ODDS won a bronze medal at the Seoul Invention International Fair 2019 (SIIF2019) in South Korea last November.
“ODDS cannot detect humans or objects as it was only designed for cars to avoid scraping (against things or other vehicles) during parking. So, for SDS, we redesigned (ODDS) by using more or less the same idea but with a detection function that only detects humans within a distance of one metre.
“Individuals can hang the device on their necks. The actual distance between the SDS user and the individual in front will be shown on the SDS.
The SDS alarm system will transmit a laser beam onto the body of the individual in front if the individual is standing less than a metre away from the user. The SDS user will know that he needs to move away from the individual and he can do just that until the laser beam goes off, thus indicating that the required one-metre social distancing has been achieved,” he told Bernama today.
Mohd Subri said the device was more effective in terms of compliance compared to the manual practice of placing adhesive tapes at every one-metre distance on the floor.
He said the SDS prototype was successfully designed in one week and that companies or institutions wishing to place orders for the device could do so by emailing mohdsubri@uitm.edu.my or contacting 012-4544031. – Bernama
