Table 1.

Industry 4.0 technologies during the COVID-19 outbreak (Haleem and Javaid 2019; Ren et al. 2020; Naudé 2020)

Technology	Description	What helps?
Machine learning	Machine vision and deep learning is an approach to analyze data and develop analytical models for a system. It is based on the fact that the system can understand information from data, identify the models alone, and make the final decision with minimal human intervention This technology can be highly effective in quality control, evaluation, manufacturing, and production	Machine learning was used in all video surveillance systems after COVID-19 and significantly contributed to controlling people suspected of being infected with the coronavirus. This technology was also used in most other technologies to stimulate and convert human commands into machine language
Intelligent sensor	Intelligent sensors are applied in some cases, such as reading details and features, measuring predicted failure, surveillance, monitoring, and increasing system performance. Small sensors are used in wearable gadgets and wireless technologies to activate the IoT industry and dynamics	Sensors could play the most crucial role during the COVID-19 crisis outbreak because the disease was transmitted through hand contact, etc. With sensors connected to electronic kits or mobile applications, it significantly avoided contaminated contact
Mobile technology	It is not possible without Industry 4.0 technology and mobile technology. The use of this technology often constitutes the waking time of each person. It contains computing chips and grids and a variety of sensors suitable for data analysis	Smartphones are undoubtedly the only low-cost, accessible, and safe method of communication in the case of this disease, which somehow tried to learn and make some experimental tests and reduce people’s contact with the community through the various sensors on it
Internet of Things	This technology sends data to a centralized server for analysis. This data is the same data transmitted to the server through devices connected to the Internet, such as mobile phones and robots. The Internet of Things can be the best option for digitizing a business, industry, or various places associated with increased wealth, efficiency, and productivity	In times of crisis, this option could be used to automate factories, homes, etc., by connecting to smart sensors to reduce contact and communication with objects in any place and intelligently control and execute them remotely. This technology has also been able to obtain various information about each region’s population and traces the outbreak’s source during this period with the data obtained through people’s smartphones
Cloud computing	This technology can be used for easy network access to various computing resources such as servers, storage, applications, and services	Throughout the COVID-19 era, this technology made life in quarantine easier for people in the community through cloud services over the Internet. Additionally, people during this period should use applications in this field for health and treatment measures
Virtual reality	This technology consists of a gadget that is covered on the eyes. The technology used in this gadget can be implemented for dedicated applications. In this technology, the environment is usually in an environment with computer graphics and 3D models and allows people’s virtual presence	People’s social connections were affected at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. On the one hand, people needed to have these connections spiritually. On the other hand, with the outbreak of the problem, the medical staff faced a challenge, and people required basic training when dealing with a crisis. Virtual reality provided this non-physical connection. As a result, medical staff used the technology for distance education to reduce the disease incidence. People also used this technology for friendly communication or work