Detecting Coronavirus Fevers with Thermal Cameras

Thermal Imaging Cameras have emerged as a vital tool in the detection of elevated body temperature which may indicate the presence of a fever, a symptom of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Thermal Cameras can assist with Coronavirus fever screening by detecting elevated body temperatures in moving crowds such as passengers, commuters and visitors, with accuracy up to ±0.3℃.

Any object with a temperature above absolute zero emits a detectable amount of infra-red (IR) radiation. The higher an object’s temperature, the higher intensity of emitted IR. Taking advantage of the differences in IR intensity between objects, thermal cameras make the invisible IR “visible” in the form of heat zone images.

The cameras provide colour images and temperature scales, and sound alarms that can be set to go off when a certain temperature threshold is exceeded. These functions make it easy for an operator to instantly decide whether the subject needs to be referred for medical examination. The total evaluation period takes less than a second which makes it ideal for screening large groups of people.