Build your own Covid-19 registration app without programming

VUB develops innovative digital co-creation platform

Thursday, December 17, 2020 — Thanks to innovative visual programming techniques, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel has developed a QR-based registration system with a built-in real-time pressure gauge. With the weave.ly platform, non-programmers can put together a data collection system that can be used to measure crowd numbers in the hospitality industry, department stores or sports centres in a fraction of the usual time and cost. The system also allows users to immediately measure how busy a place is, such as on public transport or at events.

Dr Florian Myter: “At least 100 groups at VUB are already using the system. Among other things, it is used to measure how busy the restaurant, meetings and labs are, as well as student activities or parties. As a society we have to learn to live with this virus; with this system people can organise their activities more safely and that is what we will have to strive for in the long term.”

The ICT tools that support data collection are particularly relevant today in the fight against the coronavirus. They should normally be developed from scratch, but this is difficult for citizens with limited ICT knowledge and inhibits the possibility of using modern data collection for Covid-19 registrations.

VUB’s Software Languages Lab, under the leadership of Professor Wolfgang De Meuter, has developed an innovative platform, weave.ly, with which they developed a wide range of apps and dashboards for data collection using visual drag-and-drop components, and which don’t require the user to write a single line of programming code.

Myter explains: “The reason for the creation of this QR system was the clear administrative hassle of manual registration. Given the current crisis, it is important to be able to quickly deploy systems that guarantee the security of citizens and their data, while keeping the administrative burden on companies and their staff as low as possible. The weave.ly platform provides an unprecedented level of software co-creation. Our visual drag-and-drop components are easy for anyone to understand. For example, we prepared the QR-based Covid-19 registration system for the VUB restaurant with them in just a few hours.”

Unlike other QR systems, weave.ly is highly configurable. The system also makes it possible to work with different technologies, such as RFID or barcodes on badges, and for different situations, such as real-time data analysis.

Watch the video.

See the pressure barometer for the VUB restaurant on the Etterbeek campus.

Contact

Florian Myter

[email protected]

0496.44.61.19

http://weave.ly