Guaranteed Social Distancing—at a Price

With the northeastern states slowly opening up after getting the spread of coronavirus mostly under control, at least one public venue in the region has invested in technology that forces visitors and employees to remain socially distant from one another.

The Magazzino Italian Art museum in Cold Spring, N.Y. recently purchased dozens of four-ounce devices called EGOpro Active Tag that everyone on site must wear around their necks. If any two people get within six feet of each other, the tags on both people vibrate and flash until the proper distance is re-established. For 100 or more devices, the price is $170 while each charger for up to four devices costs another $175.

A similar product on the market is somewhat smaller and can even gather data that allows for contact tracing. It’s a wristband called Proxxi Halo and it vibrates when two people come within six feet of one another. Further, it generates a downloadable proximity log for each wearer that makes contact tracing easy. Its cost is $100 per unit, and it does not need a special charger.

Originally aimed at employees of manufacturing facilities and warehouses, these two products could work well for meetings and events when purchased by a host organization or rented from a hotel or meeting venue.