Thermal Camera Measures Body Temperature From A Distance

Incoming checks are currently mandatory in hospitals. In corona times, one has to rule out the possibility that patients or clinical staff carry the virus in and endanger people who are already weakened. In order to carry out this check faster and more reliably, the Fraunhofer Institutes IPA and IAO have developed a new procedure together with the Robert Bosch Hospital (RBK). All relevant parameters are measured from a distance of one meter. The employee who performs the measurement from a laptop can easily maintain the required minimum distance of one and a half to two meters. So he is not endangered and does not have to wear protective clothing - an invaluable advantage in these days when there are not even enough simple breathing masks available.

Picture gallery

Measure body temperature, heart and respiratory rate

The method measures not only the body temperature with a thermal camera, but also the heart and respiratory rate with the help of microwaves. A radar module with a microdoppler method is used. The research team now checks on site whether and how exactly the measurement procedure corresponds to the data collected by nurses in the entrance area and whether the procedure is practicable.

The colleagues from the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO take care of the process integration of the process developed by Fraunhofer IPA. In this context, the scientists analyze not only the usability for hospital staff and patients, but above all the movement sequences of the patients and treatment chains via a contactless movement sensor system. The technology should be integrated into the hospital admission process as soon as possible. For data protection reasons, patient data is not saved, but documented anonymously in a paper table.

There is great interest

Together with the medical director of the emergency department of the Robert Bosch Hospital, Dr. Christoph Wasser, now runs the first test run. The automated examination does not take longer than the conventional one. It remains to be seen whether it is possible to save personnel in addition to the other advantages.

The Fraunhofer Institute reports that there is great interest in the mobile “Access Checker”. Other facilities such as the University Hospital Tübingen and several corona check stations in the area also want to use the new method. Fraunhofer IPA plans to build four more systems within just two weeks. A patent is also pending because the concept is to be used even after the corona crisis - not only in hospitals and nursing homes, but also at airports and other important facilities.