Mobile crowdsensing approaches to address the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain

Abstract

Mobile crowdsensing (MCS) is a technique where people with computing and sensing devices such as smartphones collectively share data that are of potential interest to the rest of society. MCS includes two different trends (i) mobile sensing, which shares raw data generated from the sensors that are embedded in mobile devices, and (ii) social sensing, which uses the information shared by people in online social networks (OSNs). In this study, the authors present the timeline evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, and summarise the MCS research efforts that are being undertaken by the Spanish community to address COVID-19 outbreak. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic is putting today's society at risk; lockdown and social distancing measures proposed by governments are dramatically affecting economies. In this regard, MCS tools can become a powerful solution to provide smart quarantine strategies in periods of a steep decrease of infections, or new outbreaks.