2020
Role: Original Idea, Electronics, Creative Coding
The Social Distancing Shirt is a wearable device that detects when other people get too close, and asks them to step back. It has been created during the COVID-19 pandemic to encourage people to respect the recommended distance of 2 meters.
The shirt uses 4 ultrasonic sensors placed in the front, back and sides of the body, and 2 speakers. When a person crosses the 2 meters threshold, a prerecorded track is played, saying “You are too close”. If the person stays in the 2 meters perimeter, the shirt keeps playing the next tracks but the messages get more and more assertive.
The idea for the project came at the beginning of the lockdown when walking in the park with a lot of people walking too close, and also realising that most people don’t have a sense of what 2 meters represent.