CovTrack (EN)

CovTrack (COVID-19 Android Application)

Intro

The app monitors people in your vicinity who are identifiable by the Bluetooth connection of your mobile phone and stores the identification data of these devices. By pressing a button you can access the database in which the unique identifiers of the mobile phones are registered, to verify whether the persons with whom you came in contact have subsequently been confirmed with COVID-19. If you have identified a potential contact, please confer with the authorities whether that contact requires your inclusion among the monitored persons, or even testing for COVID-19.

Logical steps:

  1. Your phone memorizes all the phones that were near you in a local log
  2. Your phone downloads a list of phones belonging infected patients
  3. Your phone searches if they were registered in your log history
  4. Result:
    • No risk of exposure was identified
    • You had a potential contact – contact the authorities

The application needs Bluetooth and Location permissions to enable monitoring. The verification and monitoring of the interaction history is done on your mobile terminal. The transmission of data to the server is done only in case of a potential risk of contracting the virus (not implemented).

Concept

Monitoring the risk of contracting COVID-19 involves identifying the possibilities for infection defined as potential contact between a person confirmed with the infection and persons in his/hers immediate vicinity. With the widespread use of mobile phones, an obvious method is monitoring these instances through the integrated Bluetooth. Thus, when two bluetooth devices detect each other, it means that both are in a circle with a radius of less than 10m between each other. Moreover, each phone is uniquely identified worldwide by the MAC address of its Bluetooth device.

Block_diagram_EN

CovTrack writes to a database, a local log of all Bluetooth devices detected by the mobile phone, recording location, maximum contact time and the approximate distance from it. The log is kept only on the mobile phone and is not transmitted to third parties.

Since the database is currently used just for testing purposes, the user can add a Bluetooth MAC address to the public database and test the functionality of the app, using the Android App designed to be used by medics.

Reference implementation

The source code of the application is available on GitHub – CovTrack project. It is a reference implementation of the concept developed by our team for Android mobile phones. Developing the application as soon as possible requires contributions from a wider community and any help is welcome,

A compiled version of the application can be found on the RISE web page at http://develop.roinspace.com/. To install it, enter this address using an Android terminal and agree to download it. You may need to enter the URL by copying it, if the download does not start automatically.

When the download is complete, open the file and choose installation. You may need to enable the option of installing applications from unknown sources in your phone’s settings. The application is safe and was developed only for the purpose of monitoring the COVID-19 epidemic. The code is available for audit on GitHub.

Application

The screen is split in two: an information display area and an area containing buttons.

Display area

It shows the latest sessions in the database and available details on each. Each session includes elements such as:

  • The ID of the nearby mobile phone (the MAC address of the Bluetooth device)
  • The time at which the presence of that device was detected
  • The time at which the connection with that device was lost
  • Duration of the session
  • The location of the event (close encounter)

The buttons area

The CHECK THE DATABASE button connects to the server where the database is stored, which includes the unique identifiers of the persons confirmed to have been infected with COVID-19. After downloading the entire list it looks for potential matches in the list from the local database and returns a report message.

you're safe ok map
Output A:
No risk contacts		 Output B:
Potential risk contact identified		 Output B:
Place of potential contact

The CHECK STATISTICS button opens a browser session where the user can observe the evolution of the infection worldwide. The address which opens is https://worldometers.info/coronavirus.

Disclaimer & Disclosure

The CovTrack application was developed as a potential tool to help combat the COVID-19 epidemic. The application and server resources are a pro-bono contribution of those who have worked on it, it has limitations and comes without guarantees.

The use of the source code of the reference implementation is free of obligations for any applications intended to mitigate the impact of COVID-19.

THE APPLICATION CAN ONLY WORK IF THE DEVELOPERS MAINTAIN A DATABASE WITH THE IDENTIFICATION DATA OF PEOPLE INFECTED WITH COVID-19 (i.e. THE MAC ADDRESS OF THEIR BLUETOOTH DEVICES).