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1 Introduction

Several epidemics invaded the world in world history until now. The World Health Organization (WHO) and a number of national agencies of the countries fight against these epidemics to date. The first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Wuhan city of China in December 2019. Coronavirus spread in more than 185 countries infecting more than 7,145,800 persons and also causing 407,067 deaths by June 09, 2020 [1]. The novel coronavirus, Covid-19, was initiated from Wuhan and has stretched speedily across the world. WHO declared Covid-19 as a pandemic in the world [2]. The new infection spread by the virus of the corona family and at present time the globe is a threat from the Covid-19. Till now, many countries around the globe have observed huge cases of Covid-19. The main target of this virus is those people who have less immunity, old age, and have any medical problems especially linked with lungs. Till now no vaccine is available for Covid-19.

The variety of inflamed humans is growing daily with the aid of using day with inside the world due to the transmittable nature of coronavirus. The transmission of coronavirus is spread person to person contacts and also occurred in community transmission. Coronavirus can spread a range of illnesses wherein respiratory is one of them. COVID-19 symptoms may become up within 2 weeks after the infection. The only prevention is the main concern to manage the Covid-19. Covid-19 affects the daily life of human beings. It mainly affects the health, economic, and social life of human beings [3].

The life of human beings is mostly influenced by COVID-19 and also slows down the growth of activities in the world. The detection of coronavirus near the beginning stage is very essential to control the increase of the virus because of its transmittable nature. Some characteristics of this virus are listed as [4]:

  • High spread rate: In a few months, coronavirus spread in the world and become a pandemic globally. The movements of people globally by crossing international borders are the main reason for its spread and from human to human contact.

  • Specific Target: Old age people are the main target because they have low immunity and other respiratory problems. People with other medical issues like diabetes, heart problem; blood pressure are also the targets of this virus.

  • Recovery Rate: The recovery rate of coronavirus infected patients is low globally and differs from country to country.

This pandemic has affected all the domains and also modifies the way of life. Due to COVID-19, countries have a huge loss which cannot be estimated both in the economy and life of citizens. To recover this economic loss and save a life, deployment of emerging technologies is used to battle this invisible enemy. AI domain is used to pick out the COVID-19 symptoms with the usage of CT images. The high speed of the internet is needed for teleconferencing and telemedicine which is provided by 5G network technology and additionally assist to ship and receive heavy length pictures very fast. IoT tool is used to connect all the devices of hospitals with the internet and help to provide updated information to health workers. Data may be shared remotely with the help of blockchain technology in a secure manner and assist to streamline the supply chains of various types of medical equipment like face masks, PPE kits, sanitizer, etc., and many more technologies are used during this pandemic time. Section 11.2 of this chapter is clearing up the role of CI technologies in this pandemic environment and how it saves life globally. Section 11.3 summarizes the literature review of research papers written by academic researchers in the COVID-19 pandemic time on a number of CI technologies like AI, IoT, and other technologies including, blockchain, including Cloud computing, Drones, Big data, and 5G network technology.

2 Role of Computational Intelligence (CI) to Quash Covid-19

Pandemics have been frightening human beings again and again. The various pandemics like SARS, H1N1, Ebola, and many more have shown their teeth in the precedent but from every pandemic, human beings learn a new way to battle and save their life from these kinds of outbreaks with the help of technologies [5]. Technology refers to techniques, frameworks, and developed the many devices which are designed by the use of scientific information are useful for a practical purpose.

To combat coronavirus, various technologies play an essential role like AI technology helps to spot the patients and virus, disease tracking, and prediction [6]. IoT technology connects all the medical equipments with the internet and helps the healthcare workers to provide the treatment remotely and diminish the physical contacts. The amalgamation of AI with medical imaging can modify the way of diagnosis. Machine learning develops algorithms that improve the decision-making process. Technology plays a critical role to deal with the COVID-19 situation by using robotics to supply food packets and medicines to the patients who are affected by this virus in the hospitals and in remotely monitoring patients. Figure 11.1 shows the number of ways that emerging technologies tackle coronavirus.

Fig. 11.1
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Role of modern technology to quash COVID-19

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2.1 Preventive Measures

Coronavirus nature is transmittable means it can spread from the contacts of a healthy person with an infected person and it spreads very fast. Till now no vaccine is found for this kind of virus. The only solution is prevention. Main prevention is required in the hospitals, where health workers are performing the treatment to save lives and they come directly in contact with the infected patients. Face masks are the essential equipment used by medical examiners to diminish the threat of contact with the virus while performing their jobs. Also, great pressure on the manufacturing units of antiviral soap and sanitizers to fullfill the needs to keep the price in control. Autonomous sanitizing machines are required to deploy at affected clusters to bring the spread of the virus to an end. The most relevant solutions applied with the usage of emerging technologies that enable the faster and efficient way to battle with COVID-19 pandemic are as follows [7]:

  • Disease Surveillance

  • Air Filtration Systems

  • Disinfectants

  • Spit Disposal

  • Antiviral Masks

2.2 Diagnostic Solutions

The WHO advised all health authorities throughout the world to test, detect, trace, and isolated coronavirus infected patients. Only social distancing is the one and only solution to diminish the spread of the virus and used home testing and diagnostic kits. Due to an increase in the number of infected patients and for the security measures, virtual medical visits and remotely diagnosis of patients are doing by the doctors. Chatbots and a number of mobile apps are used in the battle of COVID-19.

The most relevant solutions for the diagnosis of infections are applied with the usage of emerging technologies that enable a faster and efficient way to battle with COVID-19 pandemic are as follows [7]:

  • Mobile Diagnostics by doctors

  • Telehealth

  • Remote Patient Diagnosis

  • Disease Detection Kits

2.3 Hospital Care

Hospitals are the main battlefield where health workers directly contact infected patients and provide treatment. To avoid physical contact, Robots are employed to supply food packets and pills to infected persons and help out to reduce the burden from health workers. Artificial ventilators are used to improve the patient’s management. Health workers are the front line warriors who require safety goggles, PPE Kits, gloves, and surgical-grade essentials.

To battle with COVID-19 pandemic in a faster and efficient way in the hospital areas, the emerging technologies are providing the following solutions [7]:

  • Hospital Robots

  • 3D Printed Ventilator Valve

  • Artificial Cough Device

  • AI Algorithms For Patient Monitoring

  • Antipathogen Fabric

2.4 Industry Adaptation

During this epidemic time, all the factories, industries, and businesses are locked due to the lockdown situation and result in heavy losses. To prevent the loss, many industries and businesses are circulating from bodily to virtual platforms by using the rising technologies. Robots and drones are employed to moving items from one place to another in industries and stop the stretch of the virus by minimizing social distancing. Machines and components in a factory are controlled by augmented reality to diminish the workers inside the factory. The most relevant solutions for industries adopted during this epidemic are the usage of emerging technologies that enable faster and efficient way are as follows [7]:

  • Digital Factory

  • Human In The Loop Technology

  • Real-Time Supply Chain Monitoring

  • Augmented Reality Collaboration

  • Industrial Cleaning

  • Industrial Cybersecurity

  • Industrial Autonomous Vehicles

2.5 Remote Healthcare

In this pandemic time, hospitals are not able to give attention to normal patients and also it is not secure to visit the hospitals in that situation. But for their treatments, health workers are using lots of applications to provide assistance and treatment to them. The digital platform allows doctors and infected persons to remotely communicate with video conferencing and provides digital medical assistance by maintaining social distancing.

The most relevant solutions for remote healthcare are applied with the usage of emerging technologies that enable a faster and efficient way to battle with COVID-19 pandemic are as follows [7]:

  • Remote Monitoring

  • Telehealth

  • Respiratory Monitoring

  • Digital Stethoscope

  • Mental Health Chatbots

  • Wearable Sensors

2.6 Individuals Adaptation

During the lockdown and also to maintain the social distancing to prevent the spread of infection, smartphones-based applications are used to connect with each other. Due to coronavirus, schools, colleges, and universities are using the E-learning platforms to complete their syllabus and continue the teaching-learning process between the teachers and students. Offices are temporarily closed in this situation and finding innovative online tools to connect the employees remotely and provide the solution work from home to stop the spread of the virus. For entertainment, streaming and apps are used for passing time, because in this outbreak all the sources of entertainment like Malls, Cinema Halls, Gyms, Fun clubs, and many more are shutdown. Technology enables people to normally live their life by maintaining social distancing and self-isolation during this pandemic time.

The most relevant solutions for individuals adopted during the battle with the COVID-19 pandemic with the usage of emerging technologies that enable faster and efficient way are as follows [7]:

  • Shared Streaming & Entertainment

  • Work from Home

  • Loneliness Management

  • Stress & Anxiety Reduction by Meditation

  • Online Learning platform

  • Online Food & Grocery Delivery by using apps

  • Indoor Workouts

3 Literature Review

The COVID-19 pandemic is dispersing all over the world and countries suffering from this infection are failed to predict the magnitude of the situation due to the heavy demand for medical care facilities broken down the top healthcare models in the world. Now activities of the person have moved to the binary platform by using emerging technologies like AI, Cloud Computing, IoT, Blockchain, 5G Network, Robotics, and Drones to prevent, diagnose, tracing of the virus, social distancing, workplace safety, and many more. These technologies get better consistency of treatment and also the power of decision making. The infected patients are increasing daily globally and at that time its need to utilize the emerging technologies in a robust, organized manner, and in an efficient way to enhance the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Figure 11.2 demonstrates the accomplishment of CI technologies to handle the COVID-19 pandemic situation.

Fig. 11.2
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Application of CI technologies for tackling COVID-19 pandemic

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Technology refers to techniques, frameworks, and devices which are the aftereffect of scientific information being utilized for practical purposes. Emerging technologies like AI, Cloud Computing, IoT, Big data, neural network are used to handle this pandemic situation. Table 11.1 summarized the literature review of AI technology-based research papers. Table 11.2 contains the literature review of IoT technology-based research papers written on this pandemic time to handle this situation. Big data, cloud computing, fuzzy logic, blockchain, neural network-based research papers written on the COVID-19 epidemic situation are reviewed in Table 11.3.

Table 11.1 Literature review on application of artificial intelligence (AI)
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Table 11.2 Literature review on application of internet of things (IoT)
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Table 11.3 Literature review on application of other technologies like big data, blockchain, drones, cloud computing, robotics
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3.1 Applications of Artificial Intelligence

  • Used to identify the COVID-19 infection through chest CT images.

  • COVID-19 suspected patients are detected with signs and symptoms.

  • Mobile applications based on AI are used to spread awareness and tracing for COVID-19 infection.

  • Improve the discovery of COVID-19 drugs.

  • Reducing the workload of health workers.

AI technology is playing an essential role in the fight with COVID-19 and also provides quick solutions to prevent this virus. Many applications are designed on AI technology like ArogyaSetu App in India which is used to create awareness, self-assessment, and also help to trace the contacts for COVID-19 infection. During this pandemic time, front line worriers are facing overload problems due to the huge increase of infected patients and have limited health workers. AI technology-based systems help to minimize the burden by performing quick diagnosis. It also helps in prediction and detection of coronavirus. AI technology is used to design and develop robotics and drones. Robotics is used for the supply of food packets and medicines to the infected patients in the hospitals and help to maintain social distancing. Drones are used to spry the disinfectant in the quarantine zones and help to stop the spread of coronavirus.

3.2 Applications of IoT

  • IOT technology helps in remote monitoring of self-quarantine and self-assessment and sends the data to health workers for the assessment.

  • IOT technology helps in the rapid diagnosis of a human being with a history of traveling in COVID-19-affected countries.

  • Support remote consultations between healthcare workers and patients with smart video conferencing and telemedicine.

  • Smart thermometers are used to check the temperature of the person.

In the pandemic time, IoT technology has been used in the medical domain and also gives a positive result to handle this disease. IoT technologies are used in three phases including early identification, quarantine time, and after recovery. IoT-enabled devices like wearable, drones, robots, IoT buttons, and smartphone applications are used in fighting with COVID-19 [45].

IoMT is the extended version of IoT in the field of medicine. IoMT technology helps to provide an integrated network of medical equipment to healthcare workers to battle this pandemic situation and automatically convey a message to the medical staff. With this technology, infected cases are easily handled in a remote location with well-connected teleservices. IoMT technology excellently screens the infected patients and also handles all the cases smartly. A better environment can be created with the proper accomplishment of this technology which helps to fight this invisible enemy.

3.3 Applications of Other Technologies

  • Big data is used to track COVID-19 cases and provides a large amount of space to store data.

  • Drones are used for disinfecting and sterilizing COVID-19 contaminated areas.

  • Autonomous robots are used to provide medicines and food to COVID-19 patients and reduce health worker’s risks of infection.

  • With the help of blockchain, verification and validation of COVID-19 data are done in an easy way.

  • Facilitates the secure sharing of data.

  • 5G technology supports real-time sharing of health data and high-quality video conferencing.

  • Home quarantine patients are tracked using GPS and mobile phones.

  • Reduce the load of healthcare warriors.

  • Help in the recognition of coronavirus cases with radiography images.

Other technologies like Cloud computing, Blockchain , 5G network technology, Big data, and many more are playing a vital role during this epidemic time. In the current situation, a large amount of data are collected from various sources like applications used on smartphones, patient’s records from hospitals, and Government released data are stored on the cloud which helps to provide the updated information. To maintain social distancing, a number of activities are moved from physical to virtual platforms with the help of 5G network technology. 5G network technology provides the high bandwidth of the internet which helps to video conferencing, teleconferencing, and sharing of videos and images of huge size at very fast speed.

4 Challenges During Implementation of CI Technologies

CI technologies provide new inventions in the binary world. By using CI technologies, simulated expertize is to develop and design which is to some extent similar to the real-time situation. These technologies are given a number of applications in various domains that are used in daily work. But as usual, every coin has two sides, one side of CI technologies is very useful in every domain but on the other side, these technologies face several challenges during the implementation which highlight in Fig. 11.3. Some of them are listed as:

Fig. 11.3
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Challenges during the implementation of CI technologies

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  1. 1.

    Lack of Awareness : Generally users are not aware of the applications of CI technologies. The value of CI technologies is best understood when mass users adopted these technologies.

  2. 2.

    Network Load: In some applications of CI technologies environment, data are streaming live over the internet with minimum local caching of frequently used data.

  3. 3.

    Congestion in Communication: In CI technologies, communication can be occurring in between servers and the asset cluster and which causes congestion problems in communications.

  4. 4.

    Cost: The initial cost to develop the CI technologies-based environment is so high. A large scale of people is not able to afford these technologies in their daily routine.

  5. 5.

    Internet: The Internet is the main source to implement the CI technologies-based environment. So 5G internet bandwidth is required but still, 5G internet service is not fully implemented in most areas.

  6. 6.

    Experience issue: Users are not skilled in how to use the applications based on CI technologies and sometimes users do not easily adopt the new technologies because of less experience.

  7. 7.

    Security: Cybersecurity and data privacy are sensitive issues in the digital platform. Due to these reasons, some users are not using these technologies even do not try to adopt them.

  8. 8.

    Powerful Computers : To use the CI technologies, the main necessity is powerful computer systems with a high power processor with high configuration and resolution.

5 Conclusion

COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency globally and has become the most challenging area for global researchers. Academic research helps to a proper understanding of COVID-19. Researchers are investigating each and every possible option to battle the COVID-19 pandemic and a new way is opened by the emerging technologies. Now technologies have become an important part of the life of people to execute their day-to-day activities and help to save a life. This chapter talks about the symptoms and preventions against the COVID-19. It also highlighted the emerging technologies used to fight COVID-19. IoT technology is used to integrate the medical equipment with the internet and provide remote treatment to the infected patients and many more technologies are highlighted. Emerging technologies like IoT, AI, Blockchain, 5G, and many more give complementary efforts to the world to fight against the COVID-19 and future pandemics.