Coronavirus Contact Tracing using Bluetooth Low Energy and Smartphones

使用低功耗蓝牙和智能手机追踪冠状病毒接触者

• 批准号: 552130-2020
• 负责人: Spachos, Petros
• 金额: $ 3.64万
• 依托单位: University of Guelph
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=703529
• 关键词: Coronavirus; Contact; Tracing; using; Bluetooth

Contact tracing is of critical importance in preventing the further spread of infectious disease. Usually, such a task is performed manually through a few authorized personnel. However, it takes time for the information to reach the people who are very likely to be in close contact with the infected patient. Motivated by the urgent need for an effective contact tracing method, in this project we will develop a novel Smart Contact Tracing (SCT) system by exploiting the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals on the smartphone. Through a smartphone application, the system will classify the immediate contacts into high risk and low risk, according to their proximity from a person and the duration of the interaction. Additionally, the introduced SCT will use the proximity information to trigger a real-time alert when the recommended physical distancing is violated. The proposed contact tracing method is securely designed to prevent possible information leaks. We leverage the beaconing feature of BLE to broadcast an encrypted packet when the user is in the public space. Since the beaconing packet is transmitted through non-connectable advertising channels, no nearby devices can access the smartphone intentionally. Furthermore, the packet is encrypted with a piece of signature information that is unique and impossible to be duplicated by any device on other occasions.

接触追踪对于防止传染病的进一步传播至关重要。通常，这样的任务是通过一些授权人员手动执行的。但是，信息需要花费时间来触及那些很可能与受感染患者密切接触的人。由于迫切需要有效的接触跟踪方法，在此项目中，我们将通过利用智能手机上的蓝牙低能（BLE）信号来开发一种新颖的智能接触跟踪（SCT）系统。通过智能手机的应用程序，该系统将根据人的距离和互动持续时间将立即的接触分类为高风险和低风险。此外，当违反建议的物理距离时，引入的SCT将使用接近信息来触发实时警报。提出的接触跟踪方法旨在防止可能的信息泄漏。我们利用BLE的灯塔功能在用户在公共空间中时广播加密数据包。由于信标包通过不可连接的广告渠道传输，因此附近的设备无法故意访问智能手机。此外，该数据包还具有一块签名信息，该信息在其他情况下是独特而无法通过任何设备复制的。