Human Factors

The emergence and spread of infectious diseases, like COVID-19, are on the rise. Can you identify patterns between population density and COVID-19 cases and identify factors that could help predict hotspots of disease spread?

Spot the Virus!

Summary

The project consists of two main parts:•An application that provides, stores, and predict the situation regarding the COVID-19 in a creative way. In addition to multiple features to facilitate user interface including GPS, QR scanner to use in public transportation, voice control, and notifications •A Game that simulates everyday-life situations, as shopping, using public transport, navigating facilities, etc.. and the player has to avoid all possible ways that could get him infected.

How We Addressed This Challenge

      The challenge investigates the spread of coronavirus through human behaviors and social activities. Accordingly, the purpose of the project is to raise awareness about the possible ways through which the virus could transfer (indirectly, through a game), and ,eventually, predict and track the hot-spots of the covid-19.

      For illustration, in the game, the player plays with a character that does normal everyday actions, each in a certain level: for example, a level where the player goes to work, another where he buys groceries from the supermarket, another where he rides a bus or a taxi, etc.. Then suddenly while he is playing, the screen goes blank and shows “Game Over, you’re infected!!”…that will make the player wonder: how did I get the virus?...what did I do wrong?...did I touch an unclean doorknob?...picked something off the floor?...walked close to a person who wasn’t wearing a mask?... and then he will replay the level over and over, until he manages to avoid all the traps and possible means of infection around, and complete the day safely.

        From a reasonable perspective, this game may actually impact players in their real life! …if a player lost in the game because he walked close to an infected person, he will learn to keep his distance when he goes out. If he lost because he touched a button, next time, he will use a tissue paper when he uses an elevator. So, when the player gets infected in the game, he will avoid infection in real life.

      Moreover, the game is in fact a part of an application with useful features to ensure that all the needed information regarded the COVID-19 is easily accessible through interactive tools. The features include:

  • GPS: a navigable map to show nearby cases, isolated places, hospitals, and recent places you’ve visited…so in case you discovered that you got infected, it will be easy to track the virus and investigate the potential cases that were in the same place.
  •  QR scanner: this feature will contribute to an easy way to discover COVID-19 cases if applied for use in public transportation on a nationwide scale. For illustration, all the busses in the country will be given unique QR codes, and for passengers to ride, they must scan the code first. So later on , when a passenger is discovered to have COVID-19, it will be easy to know who was riding the bus with him at the same time, and find out who did he infect/ was infected by.
  •  Notifications: to alert the user if nearby cases appear, and send daily cases report.
  • Voice Control: to run conversations, ask questions, request possible diagnostics and medical advice, and control all the app features.

      In conclusion, the project provides everything an individual would need to know regarding the pandemic, and will make it easier to track the infection flow and avoid means of infection, leading to reduced risks on individual and community scales. “Spot the virus” is designed to be both enjoyable and beneficial.

The major problem we encountered is that for the app requires collaboration with government authorities to ensure proper implementation. We will overcome this obstacle with our marketing plane.  

Marketing plan overview:

It isn’t enough for an app to be functional to achieve success. A good marketing plan is essential to guarantee that the project reaches a huge number of users.

  • A huge portion of COVID-19 cases catches the virus during using public transportation. Thanks for Spot the virus, We will communicate with government authorities to implement the “QR Transportation initiative”: to distribute unique QR codes among the transportation sector, and make an obligatory rule that all passengers must scan the QR code before riding. This facilitates the process of discovering new cases.


  • The app would be available on the play store and the app store without any fees, making it accessible to anyone who has internet access. Moreover, we will launch an online campaign on social media platforms to advertise for the app and the game within.


  • As the application includes a GPS feature, we will Coordinate with government authorities to make a possibility to check that the app users are committed to staying at home during the specified curfew hours.

Our targeted audience is everyone with a potential to get infected with the pandemic (i.e everyone). Spot the virus will provide amusement and awareness through a creative simulation game…and propose strategies that could reduce the COVID impact on a nationwide scale!

How We Developed This Project

      This challenge was our top priority.  Doubtlessly, human behaviors are the most influential factors that caused the spread of the virus. So the team targeted to make a project that would reduce the impact of these factors. This is done by raising the awareness about the virus and all possible means of infection, and adding the GPS and QR features that shall contribute to limiting the number of new cases, and facilitate the discovery of possible ones.

       The idea of the game was the brainchild of a simple fact: the best way to avoid ways of infection, is to get infected beforehand. So, when the player gets to experience the infection ways through the situations simulated in the game, he will develop an instinct to evade them in real life.

      The main applied NASA data was through the NASA Tool “SEDAC”: a tool that shows the geographic and demographic distribution of the COVID-19 cases. Our app integrates the function of SEDAC with a GPS to access information about cases in the surrounding location. In addition to navigation history data, to show places that were recently visited by the user. So that if the user is declared to have COVID-19, it will be easy for health authorities to check for cases that are likely to be infected, even before they show any symptoms, which means the severity of the cases will decrease.

Used software:

The Game: 

The objects and avatars used in the games were downloaded from the open-source platform & game engine “Unity”. The Coding and game creation was made by “Visual Studio”. The programming language used is C#

The App: 

The used tool was Flutter, the programming language is Dart. Additionally, the google development platform “Firebase” provided the needed servers to store the app database. The Google platform “Dialogflow” was used to make the conversational user interface and voice assistant tool in the app. Moreover, “Google Maps” was applied in the GPS feature.


Additional Software:

-The icons and designs were made using Adobe PhotoShop.
-Adobe Premiere was used to edit and produce the demonstration video.  

Project Demo

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OPHZnKlx8FyQU0mnk7JEcV2r_TSI3ity/view?usp=sharing

Data & Resources


Tags
#track_the_virus, #software, #human_factor, #application, #game, #flutter, #SEDAC, #unity, #simulation, #GPS
Global Judging
This project was submitted for consideration during the Space Apps Global Judging process.