Hand-held LiDAR scanner for social distancing measures

Abstract

Since its emergence in December 2019, the COVID-19 virus has spread to almost every corner of the earth and has infected roughly 242 million individuals with an accumulated death toll of nearly 5 million [1].

Thankfully, with the development of COVID-19 vaccines, infection and mortality rates have seen a sharp decline [2]. However, the emergence of various COVID-19 variants which are more contagious and deadlier than ever, coupled with the slow adoption rate of vaccines [3], has led to increasing worries that this battle with COVID-19 will be a protracted one.

As such, while vaccines may signify a step in the right direction to defeating COVID-19, many healthcare experts still strongly advocate for the need to practice social distancing measures as key to limiting the spread of the virus [4].

This project aims to construct a hand-held device which is capable of distance measurement to uphold social distancing measures. The final prototype was constructed using Arduino platform with C++ programming.

The prototype was made up of readily accessible components that amount to roughly $20 with hopes of being widely adopted by everyone as a means to enforce social distancing.