CIC@ – the smart assistant for tracking the Corona infection chain

Distance measurement with the help of smart sensors is nothing new for industry or the automotive sector. Intelligent systems help when parking or warn when a safety distance to be maintained is not reached. What is new, however, is that they are now being used to track contacts at Covid-19. Like CIC@, a solution from BBx ID Solutions, a company from the Netherlands that specialises in biometric services and projects.

CIC@ stands for “Corona Infection Chain Assistant”. The smart assistance solution enables targeted contact tracing in the event of a confirmed Covid-19 case. This is made possible by a special “Corona Tracer” and with the help of special software that ensures a post-contact analysis and thus the identification of the affected persons. BBx ID Solutions now offers the CIC@Standard solution EMEA wide. CIC@Standard has been specially designed for use in schools, companies or facilities such as health clubs.

“In all areas, wherever people come into contact with each other who are already known by name to the administration, this assistance solution for contact tracking is particularly well suited.”

 

Thomas Bengs, CEO of BBx ID Solutions.

And this is how the smart contact assistant works

At the heart of the CiC@Standard solution is the “Contact Tracer”. It has a built-in sensor that is programmed to automatically recognise other tracers and store their ID if they fall below the specified safety distance of 1.5 metres. If this happens, a “digital handshake” occurs, i.e. the tracers exchange their identification numbers during this encounter. The IDs of the tracers are recorded anonymously, encrypted and only stored locally on the devices. They remain there for 14 days. After that, they are overwritten with new data and thus deleted. This process guarantees the complete anonymity of the users.

The smart contact assistant is in a small, matchbox-sized box that is simply hung around the neck and worn. The sensor in the box works on the basis of Bluetooth and sends or receives signals from other devices in its vicinity. The solution does not locate people via GPS, record movement profiles or store personal data.

CIC@tracer with lanyard

CIC@Standard: contact tracer with lanyard

“With our solution, we ensure that only those contacts are tracked who are actually at risk of being infected. All other contacts that were not within this radius can thus be excluded for tracking,” underlines the CEO of BBx ID Solutions. Thomas Bengs sees another advantage of the solution for companies and institutions especially in the area of security. “The vague suspicion of contact that collectively quarantined entire school classes or departments can now be specifically checked and tracked. We are swapping the quarantine hammer, which otherwise hits all contacts, in favour of a very precise solution that only affects those contacts who were also exposed to an increased risk. We can clearly identify, track and inform these with CIC@ and thus initiate further action.”

What happens in a Covid-19 case?

If a person has been tested positive for Covid-19 by a doctor, he or she reports it to the school authority or the HR department of the company. They are then sent a link to their smartphone or PC to scan the QR code on the tracer and send it to the responsible department. Since each tracer has a unique QR code that the software generates when registering the person wearing it, contact tracing can start via the scanner code and the associated ID.

The CIC@ software is also the key to getting the stored IDs and thus the list of people who have had contact with the Covid-19 case. And only authorised employees literally have this key in their hands. This is because the BBx ID Solution relies on PalmSecureTM ID Login, a biometric authentication solution to additionally protect the software from unauthorised access. The solution consists of three software components and a contactless PalmSecureTM palm vein scanner, which is already integrated on the Fujitsu notebook that is part of the standard solution. In a Covid-19 case, the CIC@tracer of the infected person is read out via the software. All IDs stored on the tracer can then be linked to the IDs of the other tracers and thus assigned to the registered users. The school management or the company then decides whether to inform the affected persons themselves or to hand over a list to the responsible health authority for further follow-up and initiation of further measures.

Highest security with PalmSecureTM 

In order to protect the use of the software from unauthorised access and to allow only authorised employees to use it, the biometrics experts at BBx ID Solution have equipped the CiC@ solution with an additional biometric tool. The CIC@software is installed on a Fujitsu notebook with integrated Palm SecureTM, a biometric authentication technology based on the recognition of palm vein patterns. Fujitsu PalmSecure touchless authentication offers the highest level of security compared to any other integrated biometric authentication.

And the CIC@ solution offers yet another advantage. To reduce the administrative burden of not wasting time recharging or distributing devices, the CIC@tracer, once activated, works for up to 6 months before batteries need to be changed. And this with a school or work routine of 8 hours a day on average. The contact assistant can also be taken home. Since it does not meet any other scanners within a critical radius there, it switches into a “standby mode” and only wakes up again the next day when it receives the radio signals of its tracer community at school or in the company.

The CIC@Standard solution at a glance.

Included in the package are:

• Fujitsu notebook with PalmSecureTM ID login,
• Windows 10
• CIC@tracer with lanyard
• CIC@Software
• QR Code Label Printer
• 1000 QR Code Print Labels
• Service unit for installation and instruction

Renting instead of buying

The CIC@Standard solution can be purchased as a rental model. The rental period is 3 or 6 months. On request, different colour variants of the CIC@tracer or individually designed lanyards can be ordered as an option.

Download press release