Apple and Google are setting aside rivalries to develop a contact-tracing tool that uses smartphone Bluetooth signals to let people know if they may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
is the process of tracking down the people with whom infected patients have interacted, and making sure they get tested or go into quarantine.
Smartphones equipped with Bluetooth can"send out anonymous little chirps, little messages that other phones can listen to," said Daniel Weitzner. He is a research scientist at MIT, who's been working on a similar contact-tracing project., are sitting on a park bench. Their phones give off Bluetooth signals. The phones also record the signals they receive.
The technology is not a fail-safe. Bluetooth signals reach further than the six feet we are told to stay apart. And for the system to be effective, a lot of people need to participate.Apple and Google said they don't yet know how many people need to opt in to see an impact. In Singapore, a million people have downloaded a government-created contact-tracing app.
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