It was the plight of an American client whose 300-person construction site was forced to shut down after a worker’s spouse tested positive for COVID-19 that pushed Campbell MacDonald to consider repurposing tech from his own company.

“They had no ability of assessing the risk, and so they had to have the site cleaned and they were out of work for two weeks,” recalled the CEO of Proxxi Technology Corp., whose Vancouver-based based company makes specialized wearables.

“The tools for managing this are non-existent.”

But what about devices that could alert workers right before they were within two metres of each other on a busy job site?

MacDonald estimates Proxxi will have 10,000 such devices ready to ship by mid-May and another 100,000 ready by the end of June.

Proxxi is known for developing wearable wristband devices with voltage sensors that warn workers if they are in close proximity of energized equipment.

The goal is to reduce risk of electrical contact injuries, but MacDonald realized similar wearables could also be used to help enforce social distancing on construction sites.

“If someone just came to us [for] a greenfield solution, this would be months of development,” he said, adding Proxxi already had the necessary hardware, firmware and manufacturing expertise in place to launch the new Halo bands swiftly.

The US$100 wristband devices talk to each other and deliver brief vibrations to wearers when they are in close proximity of others donning the bands.

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