Designing an IoT-based disinfectant gate for reducing the reproductive coefficient of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 in Malaysia

Purpose The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has almost affected more than two million people and has taken more than one hundred thousand lives around the globe. At this current state, researchers are trying their best level to drive the permanent solution for this menace; hence, till now social distancing and hygienic lifestyle are the only solutions. This paper proposes a smart entrance disinfectant gate based on the sanitizer spray station and ultraviolet irradiation mechanisms. This innovative and embedded system design-oriented gate will first capture the image of the entrant, second, measure the temperature, third, spray the sanitizers and, last, provide the ultraviolet irradiation to make sure that the person entering any space may have fewer chances to carry coronavirus. The purpose of this study is to enable the IoT feature that helps the government officials to keep the data record of suspectable, exposed, infected and recovered people which will later help to reduce the reproductive co-efficient Ro of COVID-19 within any state of Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach In the current manuscript, design proposes a smart entrance disinfectant gate based on the sanitizer spray station and ultraviolet irradiation mechanisms. This design of the gate is enabled with the feature of the internet of things (IoT) and some efficient sensors along with computer vision facilities. Findings This paper bridges an academic research on COVID-19 and addresses IoT and data prediction-based solution to compute the reproductive number for this novel coronavirus. Originality/value This paper with the features such as hardware design, IoT and, last but not the least, data prediction and visualization makes this prototype one of its kind and provides approximate results for reproductive number (Ro)