Syook Mobilizes IoT-based Social Distancing App in the Fight Against COVID-19

With ever-growing cases of COVID-19, one fact stands clear. This crisis is not phasing out anytime soon. Governments are trying hard to stabilize the economy, while businesses are trying to stay afloat. But for those who can't operate on the WFH (work-from-home) model, stopping the spread is important now, more than ever.

Many startups & enterprises are trying to do their bit in this battle against the crisis. Syook, for example, has launched a login-free "Social Distancing" App. Using only Bluetooth-based tracing, this app from Syook is a probable answer to the privacy concerns around current social distancing apps.

In the words of Syook CEO, Arjun Nagarajan, "This app uses our proprietary Real Time Location Systems Platform (RTLS) to help organizations encourage social distancing at the workplace. This way, everyone can keep social distancing in check - both at the individual and organizational level."

Syook needs little introduction when it comes to indoor location services. With several Fortune 500 clients, including Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, Fiat, etc., in its portfolio, it has the scale & the technical know-how to engineer controls that limit the spread of coronavirus at workplaces - or in general, any place with high footfall.

According to a Markets and Markets research survey, reported by Digital Journal, the Indoor Location market is expected to grow by about 26 % CAGR. The growth is expected to be driven by digital transformation initiatives of all large organizations in the manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and the natural resources sector.

Indoor location solutions, according to the report, have multiple applications - businesses can manage operations effectively, save costs on people and processes, and track missing equipment - which are quite tedious to do manually. Syook was the only company of Indian-origin to be listed in this global report.

Syook had quite the uneventful start. None of the Co-founders knew how to code. So Arjun Nagarajan, CEO, and Aman Agarwal, CTO, learnt coding 10 years after graduation from IIT. While Saurabh, COO, focused on getting their first enterprise client, Unilever, Arjun & Aman built the MVP.

Soon enough, they onboarded Unilever as their first client - which they delivered successfully; and many more came soon after. More recently, in early 2019, the Company received an undisclosed investment from Inflection Point Ventures.

Today, Syook's location solutions help organizations like Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser & Fiat track their assets, people, visitors - all in one place. Combined with Syook's proprietary IoT based platform, decision makers gain actionable insights to supercharge their productivity.

Being a market leader in real-time logistics solutions (RTLS), and creating real-time people & asset solutions for years now, Syook found it to be a responsibility that their technical expertise was deployed in helping slow the spread. Probably, we need many more such organizations to come forth and take the charge in this fight.

Introducing 'Sonar IoT System' That Can Provide Early Warning of Floods

Natural calamities are something that the humankind can have no control on. Whether it's an earthquake, drought or tornado, the maximum the humans can do is restrict their effects, and this is where modern day technology is playing a crucial role.

Rivers in Honduras flood frequently, causing a major trouble to people and their lives there. Seeing the pain that the Honduras citizens had to suffer from on a daily basis prompted Robert Ryan-Silva, the director of DAI maker lab, to take on the Hidrosónico project.

Considering villages and farms in Honduras are located on river banks, they're highly prone to flooding. This makes it an extremely tedious task to design a full proof solution for the same. Making things worse is the fact that mobile phones have a mere 20 percent penetration in Honduras. Hence, a solution had to had to be invented that couldn't not only be able to detect rising flood waters in time and alert the families to evacuate, but also one that's rugged, affordable and easy to install.

This is exactly what the Hidrosónico project came up with. The project makes use of Sonar IoT sensors that are mounted to bridges in Honduras in order to measure the water level below.




For the unaware, Sonar IoT sensors make use of the same principal to detect water level that the bats use to see. Bats make use of echolocation in order to see with the help of sound. They do so by sending out "bat call” (sounds), which bounce off nearby objects. The bats can detect nearby objects and their speed by sensing how long it takes for the echo to return. The same way the sensors mounted on the Honduras bridge send high-frequency sounds onto the water and measure the time that it takes for the echo to reflect back. As and when the water level rises, the rivers flood, making the return time for the echo to shrink as there's a shorter distance to cover.



Using this process, makes the solution financially viable, as the components cost around a decent $300. In an effort to help more and more communities from floods, the company has made all of the product's coding, supplier details and design details available on GitHub absolutely free of cost. Using this, local firms will be able to build their own IoT warning system.

The Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) has been closely working with the communities all around the world developing innovative solutions to solve environmental and social problems for over forty years now.