Corona-Warn-Buzzer: Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing Without Smartphones

The BI has participates in the Saxon project "Corona-Warn-Buzzer". Like the "Corona Warning App" (CWA), the project aims to create a tool to trace and break corona virus infection chains. Since not everyone has a smart phone, the project will develop a "Corona-Warn-Buzzer" with the involvement of the Saxon data protection officer. The device works in principle like the official corona warning app and is compatible with it. The idea is that the device records its contacts in buildings or outdoors without determining the location of the contacts or even storing personal/personally identifiable data of the contacts. The system only stores which mobile phones or other warning buzzers have been in the vicinity for a certain time. Smartphones or other buzzers are detected via Bluetooth. The communication with the servers of the Corona Warning App, which is necessary for the system to function, is carried out via mobile communication (NB-IoT). In the event of contact with a Covid-19 patient, the user is alerted via LED, sound and vibration. The stored contacts are automatically deleted after 14 days. The aim is to push the to get the buzzer ready to go into series production and possibly to carry out a field trial in Augustusburg. 

In the project, the Barkhausen Institute is working on the topics of security, optimisation, CWA-compliant implementation of contact tracking, as well as compatibility with the Corona Warn App and the plausibility of distance measurements.

Project duration: 2020-2021

Contact: Dr. Maximilian Matthé, maximilian.matthe@barkhauseninstitut.org ; Dr.-Ing. Stefan Köpsell, stefan.koepsell@barkhauseninstitut.org

Project Partners: Digades GmbH (Zittau), FEP Fahrzeugelektrik Pirna GmbH & Co. KG, Exelonix GmbH (Dresden)