Automated Temperature Scanner Sensor In Comparison With Mercury-In-Glass Thermometer

An automated temperature scanner with contact-tracing capability had previously been developed to screen temperature related diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola or Lassa fever and trace possible infected persons. The device uses a non-contact temperature sensor (MLX-90614) to acquire human temperature while the user's identity is obtained by means of Radio Frequency Identification card. This information is sent for storage in remote database and made available for possible contact-tracing via a secured web interface. Due to the fact that several studies contest the validity of non-contact temperature sensors as replacement for contact ones, the present study therefore compares performance of its non-contact temperature sensor with that of the mercury-in-glass thermometer considered as a standard in this study. This is in an attempt to validate performance of the developed automated temperature scanner and to optimize its usage. Investigations reveal that the developed device performs best when user is within a 16 cm distance from the temperature sensor. Any measurement done outside this 16 cm critical distance might not be valid. Other investigations reveal that the developed device with non-contact temperature sensor is faster than the contact thermometer with an average response time of 0.004 second compared with mercury-in-glass of 179.2 seconds. So non-contact sensor would be very useful when speed is of essence but it was found to exhibit a lower precision compared to the contact thermometer. The critical temperature obtained in this study will guide users in the usage and researchers in further studies on the developed automated temperature scanner with contact-tracing capability.

Automated summary

An automated temperature scanner with contact-tracing capability has been developed, using a non-contact temperature sensor and RFID card to acquire human temperature and identity. The study found that the device performs best when the user is within a 16 cm distance from the temperature sensor, with a faster response time compared to the contact thermometer. However, the non-contact sensor exhibits lower precision compared to the contact thermometer.