Innovet, LLC

James A White

Peter Millius

A method of minimizing cross-contamination of pathogens between persons within a facility includes placing tags onto shared resources such as tables, desks, chairs, coffee makers, microwave ovens, sinks, bathroom stalls, etc. A mobile device senses the tags and approximates their locations, in embodiments relative to tagged anchor points. The mobile device can include any combination of tag-sensing and locating features, including a camera, LIDAR, GPS, sonic distance measurement, and accelerometers for inertial position sensing. In embodiments, the approximated tag locations can be verified and corrected as needed by using augmented reality to project the estimated tag locations onto the actual scene. The accurately determined tag locations are then used to assign resources to persons within the facility, whereby spatial distancing between persons and time intervals between usage of the same resource are maximized. A log of the resource assignments can be used to enhance contact tracing.

Apparatus and method for assigning resources to persons within a facility

An apparatus and method of minimizing pathogen cross-contamination and enhancing infection mitigation at a workplace includes placing tags at selected locations, requiring at least some workplace personnel to carry mobile devices, and logging interactions between the mobile devices and tags as tapping events. Tags can be powered or unpowered. Tapping can include RF or Bluetooth communication, and/or indicia scanning. Tapping events can be wirelessly directed to a server by the tags and/or mobile devices. The logged tapping can be used to identify high risk locations, record user movements, monitor user compliance with assigned schedules and locations, and monitor compliance with specified sanitation schedules. During mitigation of an infection event, the logged tapping can be used to identify users at high risk of direct cross-contamination due to proximity to an infected user and/or surface-mitigated cross-contamination due to occupation of a location shortly after occupation thereof by the infected user.

Growing community of inventors

Voorschoten, Netherlands

James A White