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During the crisis, technologies can help to keep society running despite lockdowns and social isolation. They’ll stop the further spread of the virus, improve patients’ treatments, and assist overworked healthcare personnel.
Even the way people consume entertainment has completely changed during isolation. Not only have online casinos like Mr Bet become more popular, but new virtual reality devices allow us to participate in events without leaving home.
And once the pandemic is over, these innovative technologies that help humans will keep impacting the world. They’ll change the economy and different facets of society, decreasing the effect of new outbreaks in the future.
So, without further ado, let’s check 10 technologies that help world while changing it. Ready?
1. Shop Online and Get the Goods Delivered by Robots
Just like the SARS outbreak in 2002 led to unprecedented growth of online marketplaces in China, the COVID-19 pandemic has made shopping online unavoidable. But here’s the problem: someone still needs to deliver the ordered goods, and any contact with another human being can spread the virus. Luckily, robotics technologies help us out. Delivery companies and even restaurants in America and China are getting their orders transported to clients’ doors by delivery robots.
2. Health Care via TV Screen
More than ever before, people need access to primary care. But again: seeing a doctor who is visited by numerous people during the day can put you at the risk of catching the virus. But don’t worry. Emerging technologies help to handle this situation quite effectively. Individual IoT devices can be attached to the body to record vital signs. Based on them, chatbots (digital doctors) can then make the first diagnoses. What could be more convenient?
3. Working Remotely
Working from home has become the new norm for many employees. It prevents new people from catching the virus and saves commute time. And seeing how technologies help us arrange home offices makes us never want to return to the real one. You can have virtual meetings, set up online collaboration tools, and establish private networks.
4. Payments Without Human Contact
Newsflash: banknotes can carry the virus. Cards and e-wallets are the perfect safe payment option in today’s world. And as they make transactions faster, they’re likely to increase their popularity even after the pandemic.
5. New Ways to Spray Disinfectants
Personal hygiene plays a super important role in infection control. So, effective ways to spray disinfectants are part of the key technologies that help during COVID. To protect against viruses, several establishments have created sanitation tunnels for their entries. Incomers are sprayed with disinfectants.
And get this: China and India take automated spraying even a step further. The disinfectants are distributed in public places by drones.
6. Borderless Data Collaboration
A collaboration of scientists is the best way to deal with a worldwide pandemic. Indeed, thanks to the exchange of information and close cooperation, scientists understood what the threat of a pandemic was. They opened the so-called Book of Dead and now the countries are even more united to resist this. Making knowledge, samples, and data freely available is the most efficient way to deal with the pandemic. For example, when Chinese and Australian scientists cracked the Covid-19 genome signature, the results were made known globally thanks to innovative data-sharing platforms.
And the same concept is used in other industries as well. Companies like Otonomo share car data to create a new type of mobility ecosystem.
7. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is not only effective in detecting infected individuals. It can also take the massive amounts of data available on open-source platforms and process it. AI can then make predictions about which populations are most at risk. Based on these, it can come up with strategies for controlling the virus spread. But AI is also utilized in drones for something more menacing. In China, AI-equipped drones help track people who are breaking quarantine rules. This might be helpful during the pandemic, but hopefully, this kind of extreme surveillance will not become a part of our world later.
8. Blockchain Technologies Help Accelerate Decision-Making
Blockchain technology has proven itself to be very effective in managing the pandemic. Since the virus can spread like wildfire, there’s an urgent need to speed up identifying infected people. This can lower the chance of new infections and give scientists time to develop a vaccine. And blockchain emerging technologies help with cheap and transparent ways to simplify the decision-making process. This enables quicker responses to different emergencies.
9. Three-Dimensional Printing
During the pandemic, the healthcare system’s capacity has been under constant threat of getting overloaded. To avoid the risk of running out of face masks and breathing filters, many governments are experimenting with boosting production via 3D printing. It’s a manufacturing technique where an item is made by printing the material layer upon layer.
And if you’re wondering how can new technologies help the environment, then look no further. 3D printing produces way less waste than traditional manufacturing technologies. It’s a perfect nature-friendly machine that could be in any home by the end of the decade.
10. Nanotechnology
What makes it so hard to fight coronavirus is the absence of an antiviral agent. But nano-based technologies, currently still being developed, can offer a solution. A nano-vaccine has already been tested on people, and products based on nanotechnology are being used to diagnose and treat COVID-19. The best part is that these products save both materials and energy, reducing greenhouse gases. In this age of climate crisis, technologies that help with the environment will play an increasingly important role in our lives.
Conclusion
Technologies help to fight coronavirus during the pandemic. The crisis has forced several industries to develop products and services at an accelerated pace. We’ve discovered new ways to make life easier and safer. And the innovations are sure to remain an integral part of our lives even after the lockdown is over. We are ready for it. Are you?
Which of the innovations from our list are you already using? Let us know in the comments section.
About the Author
Ellen Royce is the technology news correspondent for a well-known online magazine. She’s a self-described techie who lives and writes in Fayetteville, Arkansas.