Google Sodar: Google’s plan to protect you from COVID-19

Google has recently launched Google Sodar that will help you maintain a social distance. The app called ‘Sodar’ will create a visual boundary using the user’s smartphone camera.

 Google sodar uses AR (Augmented reality) to visualize social distancing guidelines around you. It only works on select Android phones that support augmented reality which overlays digital objects on top of the real world and only works in the web browser right now. This is not available on iOS devices or any older Android devices.

These days, when the coronavirus is spreading day by day, people need to be more careful. The new changes we have adopted will remain with us in the near future. Social distancing, masks, sanitizers, and more have become weapons to prevent oneself from getting affected, but the most difficult of these is to maintain social distance. Many people are struggling with maintaining their distance and staying away from other people. To overcome this problem, Google has launched the Sodar app which helps in maintaining social distance. 

How does Google Sodar work? 

This tool will use augmented reality to check the area around you and will then cover a two-meter radius virtual ring around you on the view from your camera. Thus if any nearby person comes inside the circumference of the circle, the user gets notified about the same. 

How to use Google Sodar :

• Open the search engine on select Android phone that support AR. 

• Go to the sodar.withgoogle.com . 

• Tap on launch. 

• You’ll see a dialogue box that asks you to confirm you are ready to “Enter AR.”

• Allow access to your camera.

• Point your phone at the floor, scan the ground and move it around until a bunch of little white dots appear on the floor.

• You will see a virtual ring around you with a radius of two meters, or 6.5 feet. 

Apart from this, the Aarogya setu app is the world’s most download health care application. It was developed by the National Informatics Centre under the Indian government. It uses the GPS location and Bluetooth RSSI data to create a virtual space of the user. However, the app requires people around to have Bluetooth turned on to notify you if they enter your vicinity. If the other’s Bluetooth is off then it will not be able to notify. 

Google Sodar does not require you to install any kind of app nor does it need the people around you to have their phone on them. It helps you maintain social distancing. 

Features of Google Sodar :

• You can find which person is 2 meters away from you. 

• You can maintain social distance easily by using this app. 

• It doesn’t require to have bluetooth turned on to notify you.

• It also work without installing it on the phone. 

• It is a web-based augmented reality tool. 

During this pandemic time, people are facing a lot of difficulties, the biggest difficulty is going outside. Google Sodar helps a user to protect themselves from going to places where a COVID-19 patient must have visited. Users can find if a person is closer than the stated distance from one another. It is very easy to use and it is very helpful. If the user does not have space in his phone, he can still use this app because there is no need to install any kind of app. You can run this tool without installing it on the phone  and this is the best thing of Google Sodar. 

If you are finding it difficult to envisage the six-feet social distancing guideline, It will help you in protecting yourself. Why not try it today? After using this let me know your experience in the comments section!