RACE RESULT Timing Technology used as Tracing Solution to Help Fight Covid-19

May 28, 2020

RACE RESULT’s engineering team has developed a system to trace Covid-19 cases, using UHF transponders and the Passive Track Box.

As the innovation leader in sports timekeeping solutions, RACE RESULT’s engineering team has developed a system to trace Covid-19 cases and help contain the virus, using UHF transponders and its latest product development, the Passive Track Box.

“The new Track Box has not been officially released for timekeeping yet. Rather than rolling it out at running events this summer as planned, Covid-19 changed our development plan and we quickly adapted to have our technology be tested and used in other applications to help fight the virus”, says RACE RESULT CTO Nikias Klohr.

When placed in strategic locations inside buildings such as care homes, schools, shopping malls, conference centers or corporations, the track box detects and automatically tracks individuals via a UHF transponder, usually worn as a lanyard ID card. All data is recorded and stored and can be recalled easily to trace back previous contacts.

Voluntary smartphone tracing apps have some advantages. However, they do not provide helpful or complete data in the event of an infection to operators of care homes, companies, or schools. Valid information of who was in contact with the infected person during a specific time frame is important to stop the virus from spreading. One of the key points RACE RESULT has learned from timing sports events is that quality of results lists often depend on the knowledge and skill of the timekeeper. To make the system deployable outside of the traditional timekeeping, its more critical than ever to minimize the setup and automate the operation.

With TAVI – Transponder Against Virus Infection – the RACE RESULT UHF transponder are easily assigned to and worn by each employee, resident, visitor, student etc. Track boxes are installed at critical points such as hallways, meeting rooms, offices, or break rooms. They automatically detect the transponders and send the anonymous transponder ID to a secure server. In the event of an infection, the operator can log in and easily filter out all IDs that were within range for a certain time span.

“The major benefit of this solution is that it’s easy to install, scalable and needs no learning. As we’re reducing the effort for each user to a minimum, we also avoiding mistakes. Our experience from supporting thousands of sports events with millions of participants every year was a major advantage during the development of this simple but reliable solution”, says Nikias Klohr.

RACE RESULT has created whitepapers that explain the TAVI tracing solution in care homes and other facilities as examples and describe the differences to smartphone-based solutions. The whitepapers are available for free download at https://covid.raceresult.com/.

While the new development has generated attention in a variety of institutions, from care homes to shopping malls, the Passive Track Box has also brought some creative out-of-the-box ideas from our timekeeping partners around the world as races are slowly starting back up. By deploying Track Boxes at race expos, finish areas, award ceremonies, etc, it’s easier than ever to monitor the number of people in an area with live reports and be able to control crowds to enforce social distancing limits.

For more details about the Track Box or the TAVI tracing solution, give us a call or send us an email at info@raceresult.com.