Technology and Innovation

How COVID-19 Will Reshape Technology & Innovations In The Future

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Whether we like it or not, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed all our lives and continues to do so every day. Previously I talked about how COVID-19 impacted the technology developments in our societies. We saw examples of how Company’s innovated their ways around COVID-19 in order to stay relevant while others contracted and others paused or closed their operations completely.

Nowadays getting a temperature gun pointed at your head or hand seems like normal day life. The same goes for sanitizer and hand washing stations at the entry point to most buildings or offices. We have also seen social distancing posts on banking halls and hospital benches where people are not required to sit next to each other. All these are examples of how businesses adapted to COVID-19 prevention guidelines.

In this article, I will talk about how COVID-19 Will Reshape Technology & Innovations in a number of aspects like social distancing, contactless business and the Hybrid Work Model.

Social Distancing

The open-plan office allows for collaborations, networking as well as providing a relaxed atmosphere without boundary walls. These exact ingredients are not required in the COVID-19 pandemic we are still in. The risks posed by working in close proximity and high human traffic in face-to-face customer service offices have changed how we do things.

While banking halls will continue to use social distancing and mask-wearing measures in their branches, other physically customer centric businesses like restaurants are not that lucky. This is because customers even if they’ll be socially distanced, will have to remove their masks to consume their food and drinks.

Take away services are a very good idea in this instance but not every situation will require you to buy food and consume it elsewhere. Taking into consideration that reduced sitting capacity also affects the income; the Pubs, Entertainment and Restaurants Association of Kenya (Perak) says it wants the government to ease Covid-19 restrictions so they can operate longer hours. Bar and restaurant owners say the recent privileges accorded to the matatu industry should also be considered for entertainment joints that sell alcohol.

Elsewhere in Europe Arup’s came up with a new design to help Liverpool’s restaurants reopen during social distancing measures. This idea comprised of hybrid furniture and planters separated from each other with an acrylic glass. These modules are also easy to move and clean.

What will come next? What about easy to clean home and office furniture? We might also see office furniture specifically made with social distancing in mind. While updated guidelines say that surface transmission is unlikely, people are disinfecting surfaces in homes and offices.

Contactless Service

Contactless service is another area where we’ve seen companies innovate around during the pandemic. Reducing physical contact and contact time can go a long way of preventing the parties involved from contracting COVID-19. The parties could be a delivery person and customer, a doctor and a patient or even a judge and a defendant or plaintiff.

Jumia has implemented a contactless delivery system on JumiaPay, the payment platform. This enables consumers to make prepaid payments for products online and get them delivered without a direct body contact or cash exchange with the delivery agent. Even proof of ID is not required because a code is sent to the recipient and must be uttered to the delivery agent for verification purposes.

Physically touching things in a public setting is another area that has seen innovations. Nowadays people don’t want to touch door handles and lift buttons unnecessarily. Another example of contactless service is the Indian company Techmax Solution designs which designed a touchless elevator panels to fight COVID.

Contactless service will continue to see more innovations that will help prevent COVID-19 from spreading as well as delivering the intended service at the same time. In judicial matters Lawyer, Nelson Havi suggested that there is no need for physical court appearances.

The online hearing platform is viable for the disposal of mentions, applications and simple hearings. There is no need for physical court appearances except for complex cases.

Nelson Havi

This comment was made in response to lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi SC@ahmednasirlaw on twitter here

As you can see contactless service is not only reserved for Infra-Red temperature guns and sanitizer dispensers. This is one field we will continue to see innovations as long as COVID 19 is with us.

Hybrid Work Model

In March of 2020 when COVID-19 was just starting, some companies resorted to having their employees work from home. We are now into the second year with COVID-19 and companies are adopting what is known as the Hybrid Work Model.

Generally, ‘hybrid’ refers to a mix of co-located (in office or facility) and non-co-located work or workers. That mix can be within a single person or job, or it can be across individuals in a team, workforce, or group of people meeting.

Sonia Jaffe and Jenna Butler

In a bid to reduce overcrowding at the workplace, companies are providing some of their staff with computers in order to work from home.

Some are even considering a permanent working from home solution. For example in May of 2020, Twitter released a statement detailing that if their employees wanted to, they could work from home forever.

Medical Innovations

The medical field has also seen some innovations relating to COVID-19. For example, Daniel Kabugi and his colleagues have been working on a local invention called ‘Tiba Vent’ – a mechanical ventilator that is supporting COVID-19 patients with breathing. Their mission is to avail affordable ventilators to the public.

Governments should give priority to health. There is no need of rushing to open economies fully while the risk is still high. Also, the public should adhere and support the set measures by their governments. Let us also take personal initiative to protect ourselves and those around us. To the youth, each one of us can do something to support the fight this pandemic, let us do it, however small it looks.

Daniel Kabugi

The World Health Organization, (WHO) released new detailed information of innovative health technologies for COVID-19. The main objective was to select and assess technologies that can have an immediate and future impact on COVID-19 preparedness and response, potentially improve health outcomes and quality of life, and/or offer a solution to an unmet medical need. 15 of these technologies are already commercially available in countries like the oxygen concentrator in a children’s hospital in Somalia.

The list contains items like a colourized bleach additive, which allows the naked eye to identify non-sterilized surfaces and objects. Other items include portable ventilators for use when there is a black out or in areas without electricity. Another innovation is a deployable health facility for emergencies decked out in a shipping container.

Conclusion

These are just but a few examples of innovations that would never have seen the light of day if we were living like we did in early 2019. What other tech-driven innovations are we going to see in the future? We’ll just have to wait and see.

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