Kolkata: Two undergraduate students of Jadavpur University here have recently designed a new device that could detect if a person with cough is a carrier of the novel coronavirus.

Under the guidance of Prof P Venkateswaran, the two students, Annesya Banerjee and Achal Nilhani, third year undergraduate students of the Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering in the University developed the device.

As per the statement of a teacher of Innovation Council of Jadavpur University, the device will track a coughing person and analyse if the same person is a possible suspect of novel coronavirus. The device can be used as a first-level screening system to identify COVID-19 carrier with available data and thus help in containing the spread of the disease.

The non-contact device, which has embedded image and sound sensors, will work even if the person is away from the device and can even identify multiple coughing persons at the same time.

The device can be used in quarantine centres, office- spaces, classrooms or built-up areas with gatherings for monitoring the people present there.

The teacher later added that the device could also be used in drones for identifying COVID-19 suspects in public places in the open.

(With agency inputs)