Personal Social Distance Monitor

By: Akshata T.
Year: 2022
School: Aliso Niguel High School
Grade: 11
Science Teacher: Robert Jansen

Anoushka successfully built a social distance monitor device that measures 6 feet from other people accurately and can alert with a buzzer and led light.

Public social distancing is a safety measure to minimize chances of getting infected with covid 19. The challenge of social distancing is that it is hard to keep track of your distance from someone possibly infected with covid 19. In this project Anoushka built a wearable device that will alert you if you do not maintain a safe distance.

The device consists of: A microprocessor for coding the logic, An ultrasonic sensor to measure the distance from people, Battery for powering the device, LED light and buzzer to alert the user, wires for connecting all electronic components, and 3D printed enclosure for the device.

The steps involved in building this device are: 1. Connecting the microprocessor and ultrasonic sensor using wires 2. Write the code for the microprocessor to on and measure distance using the ultrasonic sensor 3. Download the code to the microprocessor 4. Connect the LED and buzzer to the microprocessor 5. Modify the code to turn on the LED and buzzer when the sensor’s measured distance is less than the recommended distance 6. Design an enclosure and 3D print it 7. Place all the components in the 3D printed enclosure.

“This project taught me how to build a device from scratch,” Anoushka wrote. “I learnt how to code, design 3d models and about electrical components and wiring. I also learnt that ultrasonic sensors are accurate at measuring distance from object but it cannot differentiate between people and other objects. In the future I want to add a camera to this device to not only measure distance from object but also to distinguish between people and objects. Also in the future I can improve this project by putting all the components on a printed circuit board and building a smaller enclosure so that the device is not too bulky.”