Bluetooth SIG Working to Include Wearables in ENS Contact Tracing

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group is working on a specification to enable wearables to use smartphone-based exposure notification system (ENS) protocols, it said Tuesday. Public ENSs, deployed by government health agencies, have used Bluetooth technology embedded in smartphones to notify people when they have been in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Smartphones alone aren’t a practical approach to cover all segments of the population, it said. “Several population groups critical to managing the spread" of COVID-19 have “relatively low smartphone penetration, presenting a coverage challenge" for ENSs, said Elisa Resconi, physics professor at the Technical University of Munich. She's researching non-pharmaceutical interventions against COVID-19. Wearables could be an effective way to extend the reach of an ENS, she said. More than 130 Bluetooth member companies joined the ENS working group to define a standard.