A DLT enabled smart mask system to enable social compliance

Abstract

As Covid-19 remains a cause of concern, especially due to its mutations, wearing masks correctly and efficiently remains a priority in order to limit the spread of the disease. In this paper we present a wearable smart-mask prototype using concepts from Internet of Things, Control Theory and Distributed Ledger Technologies. Its purpose is to encourage people to comply with social distancing norms, through the use of incentives. The smart mask is designed to monitor Carbon Dioxide and Total Volatile Organic Compounds concentrations. The detected data is appended to a DAG-based DLT, named the IOTA Tangle. The IOTA Tangle ensures that the data is secure and immutable and acts as a communication backbone for the incentive mechanism. A hardware-in-the-loop simulation, based on indoor positioning, is developed to validate the effectiveness of the designed prototype.