Most of us have had our temperature checked at the entrance to stores or medical offices or other locations where they are trying to guard against exposure to the coronavirus. A forehead thermometer is often used, or for larger numbers of people, an automated thermal imaging system is installed to scan the faces of several individuals at once. Nearly everyone that has used a handheld thermometer has a story about the inaccurate and unreliable measurements that they have experience with this method.
The market is being flooded with these systems and the problem with this method of measuring your temperature is that they often get it wrong.
- False positives - These arise when someone has an elevated skin temperature (EST) but isn’t infected. That might be due to coming in from a hot day, or from exertion such as climbing stairs, or simply having a sunburn. The measuring device itself may not be accurate because of poor thermal stability, inaccurate sensing, and susceptibility to external influences such as cool or warm air drafts. False positives can easily lead to embarrassment or hard feelings, as well as wasting resources on secondary screenings.
- False negatives - Someone running a fever might have normal temperature skin if they just came in from a cool day, or if they were exposed to air conditioning. The measuring device can also be a source of error. In these cases, screening for a fever has failed, and infected individuals are allowed entrance.
- Failed Methodology - It is rare that a person with an actual fever would have a forehead shin temperature of 100.4F. All of the other systems on the market reliant on skin temperature vs our system that reads the tear ducts will miss febrile individuals. In the cooler weather, both skin temperature systems and handheld temperature guns will miss nearly all people with fevers due to cold skin temperatures.
- Accuracy = Employee Productivity
- Accuracy = Throughput
- Accuracy = Liability Mitigation
- Not following FDA or global standards may create liability
Please watch our video above to learn why our system is different.
