An Internet of Things Approach to Contact Tracing—The BubbleBox System

The COVID-19 pandemic exploded at the beginning of 2020, with over four million cases in five months, overwhelming the healthcare sector. Several national governments decided to adopt containment measures, such as lockdowns, social distancing, and quarantine. Among these measures, contact tracing can contribute in bringing under control the outbreak, as quickly identifying contacts to isolate suspected cases can limit the number of infected people. In this paper we present BubbleBox, a system relying on a dedicated device to perform contact tracing. BubbleBox integrates Internet of Things and software technologies into different components to achieve its goal—providing a tool to quickly react to further outbreaks, by allowing health operators to rapidly reach and test possible infected people. This paper describes the BubbleBox architecture, presents its prototype implementation, and discusses its pros and cons, also dealing with privacy concerns.