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Social and physical distancing signs are pictured on the floors of various business throughout Vancouver and surrounding area are pictured between May 1-12th, 2020. As the city and the province of British Columbia start to rollout plans for certain businesses to open signs like these will be the new normal for the foreseeable future amongst the COVID-19 pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Company develops vibrating physical distancing alarm

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WAUKESHA, WIS. -- A U.S. company has developed a social distancing alarm that would allow businesses to monitor their employees, detecting if other workers get closer than six feet.

"On Friday, I was talking to the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority, and while I was talking to them, the U.S. Navy called," EmbedTek CEO Dan Aicher said.

They're interested in EmbedTek's prototype for a wearable social distancing monitor, the PariRange.

"We're putting in an alert so it'll vibrate whenever you're within six feet of another person," Aicher said.

"This technology is accurate to an inch to two inches. It's very, very, very accurate," EmbedTek Chief Technology Officer Kent Tabor said.

"This could help train behavior, too, right? Like I didn't realize I was that close, right?" WISN 12 News reporter Nick Bohr asked.

"Absolutely, and people know that they're being monitored, so if all a sudden the rules are do not get within six feet of somebody, and all of a sudden the data key shows that every five minutes you've went and talked within every single person, got within 3 feet of everybody in the building, that puts everybody at risk," Tabor said.

As valuable as that social distancing alarm element is, EmbedTek said it's the contact tracing part that could prove even more important.

"It'll keep a record going. And, if there's an issue, someone's ill, they'll be able to pull the device and pull the tracking of what contacts they had," Aicher said.

The device could also possibly be embedded in college IDs, helping contain any COVID-19 cases on campus.

"This could be one piece of that puzzle. They could know with whom that student had engaged with or been close to in the last 10 days or whatever period they wanted to look at," Aicher said.

One design can even monitor the wearer's temperature.

EmbedTek expects to have the device in production in Waukesha by the end of summer.