Employers are anxious to re-open their offices, to return to normal. But it won’t be business as usual when and if we do return. Instead, office spaces will likely undergo radical overhauls to enforce social distancing guidelines and ensure the safety of employees.
Changes that we are likely to see include the installation of glass partitions around cubicles, desks spread out at least six feet apart, designated one way walking paths, enhanced air filtration systems, limited occupancy elevators, the addition of hand sanitizer stations, and temperature checkpoints. But there’s something else that we could see as well. Something that is likely to pop up throughout society, not just in offices. Something that could have long-lasting staying power even after COVID-19 subsides. And that’s Contactless Technology also known as Zero-Touch Technology; ways for us to interact with surfaces like ATM machines, Amazon lockers, and elevator buttons without having to actually touch them.
Explains Fast Company:
“Some zero-touch tech is already mainstream; the first automatic sliding doors became widespread in the middle of the 20th century. But other technology still isn’t ubiquitous. The Leap Motion Controller, for example, can sense someone’s hands using ultraviolet light and sensors, and then uses software to understand how hands are moving. If integrated into a building, it’s suddenly possible to interact with something like a touchscreen without any actual touching. ‘It’s very, very sensitive,’ Krieger says. ‘It can pick up very subtle hand gestures.’ A person could hold up two fingers to input a ‘two’ into a screen, for instance.”
Which could be how we call for an elevator in the near future. And speaking of calling, our voices could play a key role as well in establishing safer methods of moving through society. Instead of pushing buttons, turning knobs, or touching screens we’ll use voice commands to interact with our surroundings.
Either way, it’s clear that Zero-Touch Technology is on the rise and here to stay. Ericsson even listed five ways that the technology will change the world from helping us work alongside robots to enabling the ecosystem of the Internet of Things to thrive.
All in all, how we’ve handled the coronavirus global pandemic and whether or not we should be wearing masks may be a touchy subject for some but thankfully how we design solutions to those problems doesn’t have to be.
Is Zero-Touch Technology the Greatest Idea Ever?
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