BUFFALO, N.Y. — A team of students and professors at the University at Buffalo are working on an app that would help track when people come in contact with people who test positive for the coronavirus.
The app is called PocketCare+. It’s not available yet, but the researchers at the University at Buffalo are hoping to get it on the market very soon.
Dr. Chunming Qiao is leading the team of developers, which includes a student from Williamsville East High School.
The idea is that the app would use a cellphone's bluetooth technology to see when users come in contact with someone else using the app and to also see if that person has been in a location where someone reported coming in contact with someone who is infected. The app would record symptoms and give users recommendations based on what has been entered.
The person would receive a notification alerting them when they come in contact with someone else. Users would have the option of sharing this information with their healthcare provider in order to determine next steps.
"So when the two person’s carrying smartphones running our app comes close to each other than the phone will be able to recognize the other bluetooth radio and that information will get stored on its user’s phone," Qiao told 2 On Your Side.
The app would not make user’s personal information public, instead of identifying information like names and phone numbers, the app just uses phone location information, which is stored on the devices
Qiao says he hopes to have the app available for free for the public in the Apple App Store and google play store by next month.