The province is investing $2.5 million to accelerate the development of wearable contact tracing technology À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Engineering researchers helped design.
The government’s Ontario Together Fund will provide , a Toronto-based technology company, with the funding for its TraceSCAN system that alerts users to possible exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace.
Patricia Nieva and William Melek, both À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ mechanical and mechatronics engineering professors, developed TraceSCAN's digital tracking app in partnership with Facedrive. Incorporated into a wristband, the app can track staff exposure to COVID-19 in both workplaces and in settings where smartphone use is limited or prohibited such as construction sites, airlines, schools and long-term care homes.
In a , FaceDrive said it anticipates using the provincial funding to manufacture about 150,000 contact tracing devices and create 68 new jobs, including software, firmware and hardware engineers and machine learning specialists.