A team of researchers from MIT has developed a novel method of tracking COVID-19 transmission among the population, using Bluetooth “chirps” that could automatically trace COVID-positive contacts and warn those who have potentially become infected, without violating their privacy.
The system is called PACT, or Private Automated Contact Tracing. It works by sending random strings of numbers via low-power Bluetooth from a user’s smartphone to other nearby devices using the system, creating a coded list of smartphones that a given user has been close to in the past 14 days.
