New Smart Wearable Promotes Employee Safety as Business Reopens During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Nodle M1 device helps protect employees in warehouses, manufacturing, food processing plants, universities & hospitals

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#IoT–IoT connectivity and security startup Nodle, non-profit foundation Coalition Network, and leading global technology solutions company Avnet, announce the creation of a new smart wearable contact tracing device, the Nodle M1. The device tracks distance and buzzes employees to let them know when they are too close to one another. The Nodle M1 can be clipped to an employee’s shirt or badge, or worn as a necklace. The device leverages parts of the open source Whisper Tracing Protocol and is interoperable with the Coalition App, the privacy-first contact tracing application developed by the Coalition Network.

According to a recent Harvard University White Paper and Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security study, privacy-preserving digital contact tracing tools are considered force-multipliers to help scale manual tracing efforts, reduce the amount of testing needed, and slow the spread of COVID-19. Employees spend a lot of time at work interacting with coworkers, making it easy for COVID-19 to spread. Certain jobs, such as those in warehouses, factories, hospitals and food processing plants, aren’t often performed with a smartphone on hand, which makes receiving digital contact tracing notifications via smartphones difficult.

“In recent conversations with government officials and large enterprises, we realized the dire need for privacy-preserving contact tracing smart devices that can work independently, and without the need for a smartphone. We’ve already received interest from large enterprises in the US and Europe for several million units and Avnet has the experience necessary to scale the production of these wearables in record time,” said Micha Benoliel, Nodle’s Co-founder & CEO

In response, Nodle began working with Avnet to create the Nodle M1, a privacy-first contact tracing solution for enterprises to better protect employees and visitors from exposure to COVID-19. The 5 cm (2 in.) device tracks distance and notifies employees with a buzz when they get too close to one another (less than 6 feet). The distance is determined with far better precision than a smartphone-based solution, and without the need for location. The system also enables operational (HR) departments to alert anyone who may have been near an employee who has previously reported a COVID-19 infection. To ensure privacy and security, The Nodle M1 provides a rotating random identifier to prevent unauthorized third parties in tracking employees or understanding the size of a company’s labor force. The Nodle M1 is industrial grade, IP67 waterproof, dust-proof and can live on a single battery charge for several days.

“The Nodle M1 will be a valuable tool for businesses as we continue the fight against COVID-19 because it enables employers to quickly notify anyone who may have potentially been exposed to the virus in the workplace. By leveraging the Avnet ecosystem to accelerate Nodle’s ability to deliver this device, we’re able to quickly bring to market a solution that prioritizes employee safety while enabling business continuity,” said Bill Amelio, Avnet’s CEO.

Shipments of the Nodle M1 device begin in October 2020. Pre-orders are available now at https://m1.nodle.io

About Nodle.io

Nodle.io is a privacy-first, decentralized IoT networking stack that enables for a multitude of applications, ranging from connecting and securing smart assets, to security certificates, to providing insights for consumer electronics manufacturers, enterprises, smart cities, and the finance industry. The Nodle Network is global, with 5 million daily active nodes and 100 million devices connected every week across 100+ countries. Nodle is backed by Blockchain Ventures, Blockchange, Bootstraplabs, Olymp Capital, Blockhead, Mark Pincus from Zynga, Pierre Andurand and Greg Kidd. More information can be found at https://nodle.io.

About Coalition Network

Coalition Network is a non-profit foundation that provides an open source, secure contact tracing solutions for governments, universities and any organization to integrate into their health system to protect global citizens during the current COVID-19 crisis and future pandemics. The Coalition Network includes Nodle.io, the French Government, the City of Berkeley (California), COVID Alliance, the Senegalese government, TCN Coalition and Coepi.org to name a few. The Coalition App and the Whisper Tracing Protocol were developed by the team behind Nodle and a few independents. The app is available for Android in the Google Play Store and pending release for iOS in the App Store. The founders previously created FireChat, a peer-to-peer Bluetooth-based messaging technology used to stay connected and communicate in areas without internet access. Learn more about Coalition Network at http://coalitionnetwork.org.

About Avnet

Avnet is a global technology solutions provider with an extensive ecosystem delivering design, product, marketing and supply chain expertise for customers at every stage of the product life cycle. We transform ideas into intelligent solutions, reducing the time, cost and complexities of bringing products to market. For nearly a century, Avnet has helped its customers and suppliers around the world realize the transformative possibilities of technology. Learn more about Avnet at www.avnet.com. (AVT)

Contacts

Nodle media contact:
Nicole Brunet

Media@nodle.co
+1 408-761-1803

Avnet media contacts:
Jeanne Forbis

Avnet

jeanne.forbis@avnet.com
+1 480-643-7499

Lauren Levinson

Senior Vice President, Brodeur Partners

+1 202-899-4639

Email: llevinson@brodeur.com