The Ministry of Innovation and the RISE Center of Excellence call on citizens to download the COVTRACER application on their mobile phones to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
According to a press release, responding to the call of the Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, the Center for Excellence in Research and Innovation RISE - Research Center on Interactive Media, Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies - has developed the tracker device (COVTR) . The TRACKER application has the ability to effectively help reduce the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 in our country.
The State Department, in the framework of its close cooperation with the RISE Center of Excellence for digital solutions that will help reduce the spread of the Coronavirus, supports and promotes the widespread use of the application. In a statement, Deputy Minister Kyriakos Kokkinos thanked the RISE Center of Excellence for both the cooperation for the development of the application and for the expanded cooperation for the development of a wider range of innovative technological solutions to deal with the crisis. Respectively, Professor George Chrysanthou, Research Director of the RISE Center of Excellence, stated that this is the time to rapidly use the power of research and technology in the service of society and that RISE researchers are intensifying their efforts to assist. He added that RISE actively supports efforts to resolve problems arising from the spread of the virus. COVID-19 at various levels.
The main goal of the COVTRACER application is to stop the epidemic COVID-19, which requires the rapid identification of people who have come in contact with people who have been infected with the virus during the previous days. By checking the user's tracking paths, the locations visited by the diagnosed carrier are identified and allow timely intervention, such as evacuation for a certain period of time and disinfection of some areas. In addition, it facilitates the tracking of citizens who were close to the diagnosed body. The use of the application can reduce the further spread of infectious disease. The first pilot version of the mobile application targets mainly people whose nature of work does not allow them to be restricted at home, such as doctors, nurses, police, firefighters, security forces and others.
The part of the application that deals with site recording is voluntary and the data recorded belongs exclusively to the user. Only the user has access to the data and the data remains exclusively on his device. Any diagnosed body, if it so wishes, may share the location information with the state epidemiologists over the past 2 weeks to facilitate the restriction of the pandemic.
The Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy and RISE call on all those whose nature of work does not allow them to be confined to their homes, but also on all citizens to contribute to the effort to stop its spread. COVID-19 in our country, installing the application on their mobile.
For more details and to download the application, interested parties can visit the website: http://covid-19.rise.org.cy/# . The application is available on Android, while the iOS version has been prioritized and will be posted on the AppStore.
The COVTRACER application is based on the Safepaths technology of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which, taking data from GPS tracking systems, can detect a person's route during the day.
Furthermore, 3 new services are already in the process of development and evaluation, in collaboration with doctors and epidemiologists of the state, which are expected to be included in the next version of the application.
The RISE Center of Excellence was created through a partnership between the Public Universities of Cyprus (University of Cyprus, Cyprus University of Technology, Open University of Cyprus), the internationally renowned academic institutions Max Planck Institute for Informatics and University College London and the Municipality of Nicosia. Funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Teaming Action, the Republic of Cyprus and the collaborating bodies.