The new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has affected a large part of the worldwide population, causing more than a million deaths between the end of 2019 until now. Technological development and digital tools arise to carry out activities remotely, either for monitoring or diagnosis. Medical teleconsultation activities are not new, but due to the pandemic situation that the COVID-19 originated, it has become a popular option to avoid going to consultations physically due to the risk of contagion. This article presents an analysis of different teleconsultation services implemented during the spread of the COVID-19 in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, as a case study. The methodology includes a performance assessment of the teleconsultation apps used during the critical periods of the pandemic. We detailed the fundamental stages deemed to verify that the fulfillment and knowledge about telemedicine in this city are not extensive enough in terms of remote health benefits. Throughout this study, we evidenced that the population is not prepared to manage remote-care systems due to the low use of technology and the lack of support from public or private agencies for providing technological development for medical services that satisfy the needs of the inhabitants.

Many fire situations have represented the loss of lives and material costs due to the lack of early fire detection through smoke or gas sensing, which can become complex and critical. Meanwhile, engineers worldwide develop and test multiple systems for smoke and gas detection, commonly based on sensor networks, digital image processing, or computer vision. Furthermore, the detection system must work thoroughly with alarms and warnings that aware of a risk situation for prompt evacuation of the population in the surroundings based on a reliable data network topology with adequate device deployments that will let us know the moment a fire outbreak. This paper presents a low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) prototype for fire detection in outdoor environments based on sensors and Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), focused on the accuracy in the temperature and gas measurement at the moment a fire starts. For its achievement, we integrated wireless components, development boards, and electronic devices, following the management of information updates through a database schema for the alarm settings based on the data gathered from the sensors. INDEX TERMS database systems, emergency services, gas detectors, sensor systems, temperature measurement.

The loss of several lives happens in events of natural disasters, due to the strength of nature or the static evacuation routes that usually directs towards a unique exit pathway. This paper proposes the integration of technology tools such as servers and open-source sensors into a reactive signage network to provide an updated and dynamical emergency evacuation system focusing specifically on fire situations. This pilot project works using microcontrollers that capture and manages into a server the surrounding information, setting evacuation routes and behaving according to the Dijkstra algorithm allowing the identification of obstacles or possible incidents that occur spontaneously during an evacuation. This process sends updates to the server either the evacuation route keeps the same or if a modification is required based on the information provided by the sensors about different areas, warning the shortest path for evacuation using computer vision support.

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Vehicular traffic in metropolitan areas turns congested along either paths or periods. As a case study, we have considered a mass transport system with a bus fleet that rides over exclusive lanes across streets and avenues in an urban area that does not allow the circulation of lightweight vehicles, cargo, and motorcycles. This traffic flow becomes congested due to the absence of restriction policies based on criteria. Moreover, the exclusive lanes are at ground level, decreasing lanes for other vehicles. The main objective of this proposal consists of controlling the access to the exclusive lanes by a cyber-physical system following authorization conditions, verifying the permission status of a vehicle by the accurate recognition of license plates to reduce traffic congestion. Therefore, in the case of invading an exclusive lane without permission, the vehicle owner gets a notification of the fine with the respective evidence.