Monitoring Social Distancing in Queues Using Infrared Array Sensor

Since the emergence of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), more than 165 million people have been infected all around the world (as of May 2021). The COVID-19 virus is highly contagious, especially in large crowded spaces. To prevent the infection and slow the transmission of the virus, the World Health Organization recommends wearing a mask, washing hands regularly, and maintaining a distance of at least one meter between people. To support this prevention, we propose a connected object based on LoRa technology to monitor the social distancing of one meter between people in queues. The proposed system uses infrared array sensor MLX60940 to detect people through their body temperature. Based on this output, we developed an algorithm to verify social distancing. The main advantage of this node is its ability to preserve the privacy of detected people and consume less energy compared to camera-based systems. Experimental results show that the proposed node can detect up to six persons per queue with an accuracy of 93% when the distance between people is below 80 cm.