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Comment by teruakohatu | Hacker News Reader

Kiwi here, I belive this is either snake oil or a conceptual idea rather than a product. The media are touting it as credit card sized device, but with a battery it would need to be much thicker.

Here in lockdown we are allowed to go for a walk or cycle. Potentially this card could register thousands of contacts.

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Yeah - I design this sort of thing and I can't understand how the power management of this thing works - battery life has to be a month or so (or it's a cm thick).

Remember that when you're talking at GHz (ie BT) you have to keep your receive PLLs powered up to receive data, that's ~1/2 the power requirements of short distance transmitting

Some media here have claimed a 6 months to a year of battery life. I am very skeptical.

Exactly - I'm not saying it can't be done, just that I'm highly highly skeptical

Just noticed the username. Feel free to shoot me an email, would be keen to hear what kind of work you do in nz.

You don't need to transmit or receive continuously.

If you have two cards that are going to talk to each other one needs to be listening when the other is transmitting, if they're off 95% of the time (like the stuff I design) then 95% of the time someone transmits no one will be listening.

You can try and do something smart around synchonising wakeup times nationwide, but that is genuinely hard (and requires a xtal clock to be awake at all times, also burning power)

I have wondered why Tile here in the U.S. doesn’t do exactly this. Tile “cards” are about the thickness of a credit card. I have one in my wallet so I can “beep” my wallet when I can’t find it.

The power needs must be miniscule, I assume.

Anyway I think its technical feasability is established vis a vis powering electronics in that form factor.

And gathering a lot of recorded contacts is exactly what the goal is, so that’s not a bad thing.

Yes, it would generate a huge amount of data to sift through.

Based on what we know about the proposal, the hardware platform doesn't yet exist. Even if the full design was already complete, how long would it take to tool up a factory to produce 5,000,000 units and the distribution infrastructure to ensure everyone had a unit? It just doesn't make any sense.

There's been a disturbing trend where businesses are approaching government agencies (without even an RFP being issued) trying to get them to endorse/fund their app or device or technology. It just stinks of an attempt to profit from the disaster as opposed to a genuine desire to help enhance our contact tracing infrastructure.

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