This archive report was first published on 8 June 2020.
As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing has become the new normal. To help people maintain a safe distance, the World Health Organization recommends keeping at least one meter or three feet apart from others in public spaces.
However, measuring this distance in the real world can be challenging. Luckily, technology is stepping in to provide innovative solutions. One such solution is Google's Sodar tool, which uses augmented reality to visualize 2m social distancing guidelines in your environment.
Developed under Experiments with Google, Sodar uses your phone's Chrome browser to initiate the visualization of the environment around you using Augmented Reality (AR). To try it out, open goo.gle/sodar on your Chrome browser and hit 'launch' to get started.
Another interesting innovation coined out of the coronavirus pandemic is Singapore's robotic dog. The Southeast Asian country used a robot dog to ensure that park users at the city's Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park stayed at least one meter apart from each other.
Over in Belgium, a company called Robit has created a bracelet dubbed the Romware Covid Radius, which helps employees in a workplace effectively observe social distancing guidelines by vibrating and displaying a visual warning whenever they get close to each other.
As we continue fighting this coronavirus pandemic, technological inventions and innovations will certainly keep being rolled out to make us cope better.
