Facedrive Health Expands Reach of Reliable Bluetooth Communications via Wearables for Global Digital Exposure Notification

Rhea-AI Summary

Facedrive, Inc. (TSXV:FD, OTCQX:FDVRF) announces that its subsidiary, Facedrive Health, will integrate VMware's open-source Herald technology into its TraceSCAN health service. This collaboration aims to enhance digital exposure notifications for COVID-19 through reliable Bluetooth communications, fostering global interoperability standards. By joining the Herald community, Facedrive Health seeks to expand the reach of exposure notification solutions, particularly for demographics without smartphone access. Herald's features promise improved accuracy and broad adoption among health authorities.

Positive

• Integration of Herald technology enhances TraceSCAN's capabilities.
• Collaboration with reputable entities like VMware supports credibility.
• Potential to significantly improve exposure notification accuracy and interoperability.

Negative

• None.

Facedrive Inc. (“Facedrive”) (TSXV:FD) (OTCQX:FDVRF), is pleased to announce that Facedrive Health, its contact tracing and health services subsidiary and developer of TraceSCAN, is contributing to Herald, an open source project developed by VMware. Herald is a technology stack that enables reliable Bluetooth communications for digital exposure notification. With this commitment, Facedrive Health plans to integrate Herald into TraceSCAN’s current and future generation wearables. Joining the community of developers to help build, enhance, and evolve this open source project is part of Facedrive’s social responsibility as countries look to open their borders and adopt a global interoperability standard for COVID-19 digital exposure notifications.

To further expedite the reach and interoperability of digital exposure notification through wearables, Herald is sharing its codebase—including Facedrive’s contributions—with Linux Foundation Public Health (LFPH.io). LFPH is a non-profit global community that builds, secures, and sustains open source software to help public health authorities (PHAs) around the world combat COVID-19 and future epidemics. As more projects are contributed, LFPH will expand its scope into software support for all phases of PHA’s testing, tracing, and isolation activities.

Current technology contributors to the Herald Protocol include VMware, The Australian Government and Facedrive Health. The Herald Protocol has been adopted by the Australian Government while additional local, regional, and national government organizations are currently evaluating Herald for use in their exposure notification apps. Herald is an open source Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) based protocol developed for the reliable exchange of information between a range of mobile phones. Herald is being developed with the goal of providing more reliable Bluetooth Proximity Detection to improve digital exposure notification applications worldwide in order to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Herald is a VMware-originated open source project and represents part of VMware’s growing investment in and contributions to open source communities.

Herald delivers a set of features which enhance exposure notification at the inter-device communications level. Important features include 100% detection of phones in the foreground and background across iOS and Android devices, more frequent distance estimations enabling more accurate data capture and risk measurement over time. Perhaps most importantly, by providing a common packet header Herald allows for international interoperability amongst all contact tracing applications, whether designed for centralised or decentralised contact matching and risk scoring.

TraceSCAN, Facedrive Health’s innovative exposure notification and smart wearables solution, is powered by cutting-edge Bluetooth technology which enables the device to work as an independent wearable product or in conjunction with mobile-only solutions. Given Facedrive Health’s expertise in the development of wearable exposure notification devices, joining the Herald community and contributing to its development was a natural fit. Facedrive Health’s contributions will focus on the development of code to enable wearable exposure notification devices, such as Facedrive Health’s TraceSCAN, to communicate with all other devices that implement the Herald Protocol, thereby giving TraceSCAN a 100% device compatibility potential. Adoption of Herald will allow TraceSCAN wearables to operate across multiple exposure notification platforms globally, whilst accelerating our expansion in exposure notification internationally. The community development will also include defining a technical standard on international interoperability for Bluetooth based device communications related to contact tracing.

Facedrive developed TraceSCAN wearables health tech to increase the reach of exposure notification into personal and workplace environments where use of smartphones is not possible or not allowed. TraceSCAN also addresses specific at-risk demographic segments such as senior citizens, children, and low-income individuals who may not have access to smartphones or not be familiar with their use. TraceSCAN is also well-suited for other unique workplace environments such as the travel industry (for example, cruise and airlines); construction sites; healthcare facilities and senior care homes; schools, colleges and universities; farms and gyms. Facedrive believes that Herald has the potential of greatly increasing the reach of exposure notification applications and improving their accuracy.

"The Herald Protocol is an innovative and necessary foundational technology that can significantly improve the communications layer of the exposure notification application stack. Based on our experience in building TraceSCAN, we are pleased to be involved in the community development of Herald, alongside VMware and other partners,” said Sayan Navaratnam, Chairman and CEO of Facedrive. “Herald has the potential to significantly improve the range and accuracy of COVID-19 related applications and to enable universal interoperability across technology silos in Canada and internationally. This type of global connectivity is critical because the larger an exposure notification network becomes, the more effective it is at detecting and halting the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases,” added Navaratnam.

About Facedrive

Facedrive is a multi-faceted “people-and-planet first” tech ecosystem offering socially-responsible services to local communities with a strong commitment to doing business fairly, equitably and sustainably. As part of this commitment, Facedrive’s vision is to fulfil its mandate through a number of verticals that either leverage existing technologies of the Company or project synergies with existing lines of business (the “Facedrive Verticals”). The Facedrive Verticals include its rideshare business (“Facedrive Rideshare”), sustainable e-commerce platform (“Facedrive Marketplace”), food-delivery service (“Facedrive Foods”), e-social platform (“Facedrive Social”) and its contact-tracing health services business (“Facedrive Health”).

Facedrive Rideshare was among the first to offer a wide variety of environmentally and socially responsible solutions in the Transportation as a Service (TaaS) space, planting thousands of trees based on user consumption and offering choices between electric, hybrid and conventional vehicles (including, more recently, electric and hybrid vehicles on a subscription basis through Steer). Facedrive Marketplace offers curated merchandise created from sustainably sourced materials. Facedrive Foods offers contactless delivery of a wide variety of foods right to consumers’ doorsteps, with a focus on doing so in a socially and environmentally-conscious manner. Facedrive Social strives to keep people connected in a physically-distanced world through its HiQ and other e-socialization platforms that invite users to interact based on common interests and by offering gamification and mutual community support features. Facedrive Health strives to develop and offer innovative technological solutions to the most acute health challenges including its proprietary TraceSCAN wearable technology for contact tracing. Facedrive envisions changing the ridesharing, food delivery, e-commerce, social and health tech narratives for the better, for everyone, and is currently operational in Canada and the United States.

For more about Facedrive, visit www.facedrive.com.

Facedrive Inc.
100 Consilium Pl, Unit 104, Scarborough, ON, Canada M1H 3E3

About Linux Foundation Public Health (LFPH)

Linux Foundation Public Health (LFPH) uses open source software to help public health authorities (PHAs) around the world combat COVID-19 and future epidemics. LFPH projects include COVID Shield – being deployed in Canada and Mongolia – and COVID Green, which has been deployed in five countries and four US states. As more projects are contributed, LFPH will expand its scope into software support for all phases of PHA’s testing, tracing, and isolation activities. LFPH is part of the non-profit Linux Foundation.

For more information, please visit lfph.io.

About Herald

Herald is a VMware-originated open source project (Apache 2.0 license) using the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) based protocol for the reliable exchange of information between a range of mobile phones. Herald consists of a low-level BLE protocol, with a choice of data payloads. The Herald Envelope and Herald Secured payloads are examples for exposure notification applications that provide epidemiological information, individual privacy, ensure security, and allow international interoperability - even between ‘centralised’ and ‘decentralised’ exposure notification applications.

For more about Herald, visit https://vmware.github.io/herald/

Forward-Looking Information

Certain information in this press release contains forward-looking information. This information is based on management’s reasonable assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to us and are made as of the date of this press release. Actual results (such as the success of any pilots or final adoption of TraceSCAN by various organizations or agencies) and the timing of events may differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information as a result of various factors. Information regarding our expectations of future results, performance, achievements, prospects or opportunities or the markets in which we operate is forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not facts but instead represent management’s expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances. Many factors could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements or future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

See “Forward-Looking Information” and “Risk Factors” in Facedrive’s Filing Statement dated August 28, 2019 for a discussion of the uncertainties, risks and assumptions associated with these statements. Readers are urged to consider the uncertainties, risks and assumptions carefully in evaluating the forward-looking information and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information. We have no intention and undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

VMware is a registered trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210208005256/en/

FAQ

What is the significance of Facedrive's integration with Herald?

Facedrive's integration with Herald enhances its TraceSCAN wearable technology, improving the accuracy and reliability of COVID-19 exposure notifications.

How does Herald technology impact exposure notification applications?

Herald technology allows for 100% detection across devices, facilitating international interoperability and improving the effectiveness of exposure notifications.

What partnerships support the Herald Protocol initiative?

Current technology contributors to the Herald Protocol include Facedrive Health, VMware, and the Australian Government.

When was the announcement about Facedrive's collaboration with Herald made?

The announcement was made on February 8, 2021.

What advantages does TraceSCAN offer compared to smartphone solutions?

TraceSCAN is designed for users who may not have access to smartphones, thereby extending exposure notification capabilities to at-risk demographic segments.