A wearable magnetic field based proximity sensing system for monitoring COVID-19 social distancing

Abstract

We present a wearable, oscillating magnetic field-based proximity sensing system to monitor social distancing as suggested to prevent COVID 19 spread (being between 1.5 and 2.0m) apart. We evaluate the system both in controlled lab experiments and in a real life large hardware store setting. We demonstrate that, due physical properties of the magnetic field, the system is much more robust than current BT based sensing, in particular being nearly 100% correct when it comes to distinguishing between distances above and below the 2.0m threshold.