Coronavirus: Wisconsin company creates buzz with social distancing alarm

WAUKESHA, Wis. — For people alarmed with social distance violators during the coronavirus pandemic, a Wisconsin company may have the solution.

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EmbedTek, located in Waukesha, has developed a social distancing alarm, which would allow businesses to monitor their employees and ensure workers stay more than 6 feet apart.

Dan Aicher, the company’s CEO, said the U.S. Navy is interested in his product, WISN-TV reported.

“We’re putting in an alert so it’ll vibrate whenever you’re within 6 feet of another person,” Aicher told the television station.

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Kent Tabor, EmbedTek’s technology officer, said the alarm is very accurate.

“This technology is accurate to an inch to 2 inches," Tabor told WISN. “People know that they’re being monitored, so if all a sudden the rules are, ‘Do not get within 6 feet of somebody,’ and all of a sudden the data key shows that every five minutes you’ve went and talked with every single person, got within 3 feet of everybody in the building, that puts everybody at risk."

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While the monitor tool will be valuable, Aicher said the contact tracing could be even more helpful.

”It’ll keep a record going," Aicher told WISN. “And, if there’s an issue, someone’s ill, they’ll be able to pull the device and pull the tracking of what contacts they had."

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Aicher suggested the device could be embedded in the identification cards of college students.

“This could be one piece of that puzzle," Aicher told the television station. “They could know with whom that student had engaged with or been close to in the last 10 days or whatever period they wanted to look at.”

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EmbedTek officials said they expect to have the device in production by the end of the summer, WISN reported.

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