Project aims to mitigate risk and prepare for COVID19 “new normal”

Faculty and students in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering are working on a project aimed to mitigate risk and prepare for the new normal after Covid19. This is a joint project with the CU Anschutz Medical Campus and Children’s Hospital Colorado.

The main objective is to provide visual airborne contagion mapping. The video below shows spreading patterns and risk factors between different mask material and the correct way of wearing it.

“Our technology can quantify distance, speed, and even exhale volume,” said Min Choi, professor and director of the Computer Graphics and VR Lab. “But the real advantage is that it can be used for a real-world environment to better understand the risk when multiple people are interacting within an interior space where furniture, equipment, and other objects are around.”

Choi and his team hope to develop recommendations on how to revise the workplace, processes, and the way people interact–especially for places like schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and offices where personnel interaction is inevitable.