COVID-19 Alert Band

Since COVID-19 has spread across the globe, each country has approached the issue in its way. This project focused on the UK approach to the COVID-19 crisis.

By the end of 2019, a coronavirus was identified in Wuhan, China. With the virus having a potential R nought of 5.7, this virus could become a global pandemic, on the 23rd of March 2020 the UK was put on a full nationwide lockdown to reduce the spread of the newly named COVID-19 With limited reasons to leave the house, a set of new social distancing measures were required to be put into place to avoid what limited contact the normal individual would have with other people while shopping for essentials.

On the 13th of May new measures were brought in to begin to reduce lockdown measures. However, stringent social distancing measures were in place; this reduces in lockdown measures would still increase the interaction rate and potential risk of a second surge of COVID-19 diagnosis rate.

The COVID-19 Geiger

The COVID-19 Geiger is designed to be produced as a government initiative to keep the general public aware of other people's health around them and stem the potential risk of a second COVID-19 outbreak. The device is to be worn by a high percentage of the UK public, as a way to detect potential COVID-19 symptoms of people around them. The device measures the users own temperature for a week to gain a median temperature of the user. If the users' temperature is raised, the band will turn on and begin to send out a signal to surrounding bands that the person has a raised temperate and to stay way. The band is to force people to be aware that COVID-19 has not gone away and cannot become complacent.

The Pandemic

As COVID-19 spread across the globe, each country dealt with it in their way. Each counties aim was to flatten the curve of infection rate; results varied with the US being one of the worse affected, with the UK not far behind with infection per populous. The NHS was not overrun and was able to cope with demand. Once the dust had settled, the next question was, how were we to resume life before COVID?

5 Stages of COVID-19

As the cases and deaths began to reduce the government released a five step to phase the country out of lock down, Each step had its own set of criteria that must be met to be able to go into the next phase, to eventually go to stage one. The country back to normality, however, if infection returns individual counties can go back into further restrictions.

Social Distancing

Social distancing has been a critical factor to allowing the population to get essentials from the food shops in the peak and imperative to reducing the chances of a second wave of infections as we go lower in the stages of outbreak measures.

Component Spacing

As part of my rapid prototyping process, I like to create a scaled-up version of the internal components, this way, I can ensure that the design fits together well and highlight critical areas that need altering.

Ergonomic Refinement

As I created variations of the design, I realised that the small clasp on the back of the watch would have to be removed for a more straightforward mechanism using an embedded metal strip that would grip the wrist without the use of a clasp.

Quick Design Alterations

As I printed the bands, I realised that some aspects of the watch would have to change. They were ranging from how the strap held the watch body in place or how it fits around the user's wrist. All these alterations would always need refinement in a studio and with rapid prototyping in Flexi-filament speeds up this process and allow for quick, cheap adjustments.