Businesses are installing thermal imaging cameras to monitor fevers

As concerns about the COVID-19 ramped up, initially a number of companies and hotels starting adding thermal imaging cameras to detect visitors’ and guests’ body temperatures at entrances of their premises and facilities.

The announcement that most business offices and hotels would temporarily close amid coronavirus concerns overshadowed the installation of this technology. But the technology installed in these facilities aligns with similar installations in corporate offices, governmental buildings as well as airports.

Facilities of different businesses embrace the new technology for one simple reason: the benefit of identifying people infected with coronavirus earlier. On average, an individual with coronavirus infects an average of 2.5 people within 5 days.

Surveillance cameras with Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera features used by several companies and airports, reduces infection rates through very early detection, keeping COVID-19 cases at a capacity our health care system can actually deal with.

Why do we need this technology?

One of the early symptoms of coronavirus is fever. Thermal imaging cameras and temperature monitoring security technology can detect people with raised body temperatures.

When airports, hotels, train depots, hospitals or other venues use this security technology, they easily spot people with some fever. The system notifies security personnel who will take steps to separate those individuals for another extra screening by healthcare professionals.

Advances in surveillance technology play a key role in restricting coronavirus spread. There is a huge potential in A.I. and thermal imaging.

The benefits of temperature monitoring and screening

When premises and facilities use temperature monitoring solutions, artificial intelligence and thermal imaging to spot individuals with fevers, businesses see a host of benefits:

• It allows security professionals to scan a large number of individuals as they walk by.
• It detects critical temperature elevations, all in real-time.
• It alerts authorities when it identifies people with raised temperatures.
• It protects public health by monitoring fevers caused by contagious diseases (like coronavirus)

Innovative fever-monitoring technology

This technology provides a visual map of skin temperatures and will detect minute temperature variations down to 0.07 degrees Celsius. Such thermal infrared cameras can offer us colour images as well as temperature scans, and also signals when body temperatures actually exceed preset temperature thresholds. Once they have been informed, security personnel will determine whether to refer the identified person to the healthcare system.

This technology simply leverages artificial intelligence and thermal imaging security innovations in order to detect fevers.

Some companies offering this technology introduced security cameras able to detect guns and firearms within its view by comparing the heat of a suspected weapon with the body surface nearby. Those very same companies are now launching “A.I. thermal cameras” capable to detect fevers in individuals as they walk by. The system can deliver automatic alerts to security authorities. The cameras can detect the heat of twelve separate parts of our bodies and can predict temperature within a half-degree.

The system utilises artificial intelligence to simultaneously monitor dozens of thermal cameras and issues alerts to security personnel when it detects a person with a fever. This system can take a thousand temperature readings per hour, more quickly than the handheld temperature readers used at conventional airports.

Using technology for screenings

The WHO or World Health Organisation declared the coronavirus a pandemic and governments in most countries responded by limiting large gatherings, closing offices, hotels, schools and unessential businesses, as well as imposing travel restrictions. Using these technologies is another perfectly viable step to limit the infection’s spread.

Though security technology will not prevent coronavirus infections, it can indeed reduce its spread. Infrared screenings provide a non-invasive and efficient way to test individuals for the COVID-19. Installing such technology could potentially save lives.