Integration of Video and Radio Technologies for Social Distancing

Researchers have proposed solutions to limit the spreading of the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide. Systems capable of guaranteeing compliance with the minimum distance between people have been considered important to prevent the diffusion of the virus. In this article, we describe one system that can be used to keep distancing among persons moving in public spaces. It is based on the integration of computer vision techniques for rapidly detecting the presence of gatherings in the area and local radio technologies to identify and alert persons in the detected gatherings. We show that the goal of distancing can be achieved by fully respecting the privacy of individuals, which could be compromised by other distancing solutions such as those based on apps installed on personal devices such as smartphones and tablets.