Collaboration With Boundaries – Device Enforces 6-Foot Distancing
The Social Distancer is a small and sophisticated wearable device that helps employees keep a safe distance at work. It is the product of three Canadian companies’ combined expertise along with support from a national research organization.
Posted: April 28, 2020
As workers across North America in manufacturing, warehouse and food processing continue to execute critical projects amid COVID-19, working environments and basic human nature can make it difficult for them to follow recommended physical distancing standards.
Watching their own employee base navigate these issues, three manufacturing veterans, Jarred Knecht (Promark Electronics Inc), as well as John Soares and Steve Zimmermann (CMP Advanced Mechanical Solutions), united their companies’ expertise and co-founded Social Distancer Technologies Inc., (Montreal, Quebec) to create, with support from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP), the Social Distancer, a wearable product designed to provide workers with an easy way to maintain a safe 6-ft. distance between one another.
“It’s our responsibility to keep our employees safe at all times, and especially during this outbreak,” says Jarred Knecht, co-founder and COO of Social Distancer Technologies Inc. and president of Promark Electronics Inc. “But most workers have to interact collaboratively with one another at some point in their day, and it can be difficult to maintain physical distancing practices. The Social Distancer was developed as an easy solution for workers to continue their projects while maintaining proper safety standards during COVID-19.”
The Social Distancer is a credit-card size, one-inch thick patent-pending device that instantly calculates the distance between employees. It has three methods of alert — visual, vibration and tone — to instantly notify employees. If they’re within 2.5 meters of each other, the device will flash red, vibrate and audibly alert the employees to move farther away.
“The COVID-19 landscape is something new to all of us. We brought together our experts, with advisory support and research and development funding from NRC IRAP, to help our employees not only stay safe, but also be able to work freely and comfortably,” says John Soares, co-founder and VP of Social Distancer Technologies Inc. and
EVP of CMP Advanced Mechanical Solutions. “With the Social Distancer, employees can go on with their workday without the need for any awkward conversations, unexpected proximity issues, or discrepancy about what exactly six feet is.”
The Social Distancer lasts 10-12 hours on a single charge; the duration of one full shift. The wearable device begins at $199 CAD ($149 USD) per unit and is now available for pre-order, shipping to Canada, the U.S and Europe within four to six weeks. As a way to give back to local communities, a portion of the proceeds from every device sold will go to a COVID-19 relief fund in the country where the product is sold.
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