Getting one’s temperature taken used to be a painful experience. Over the years, thermometers have gotten progressively better and better and have become more child-friendly.
According to Forbes, there may be a new method for taking temperatures on the horizon that will trump them all.
The human body, when in a state of wellness, has an average temperature of 98.6 degrees. The variety of ways for a mother, and sometimes a doctor, measures a person temperature include: feeling one’s face and forehead, kissing of the forehead, the traditional mercury thermometer, a strip placed on the forehead, an electronic thermometer rolled over the forehead and face, and an ear thermometer that measures body temperature.
Here comes another: your smartphone.
Soon, the days of having to hold a thermometer under your tongue, under your armpit or shoved up your, err, southernmost point of entry, will be gone. Replacing those old traditions will be an app for your smartphone. The Fraden Corporation has been granted the patent on an app that will allow one to take the temperature of a sick person, without physical contact.
The process is quick, and eliminates the frustration many parents experience trying to get a sick child to be still long enough to take their temperature.
This new measurement tool will entail measuring the infrared emitted from the human body. Much like the principles of the ear thermometer, the smartphone will be able to take a picture that will measure the amount of infrared light given off by the body, and relate it into an accurate measuring of the body’s temperature.
The new technology used today allows the sensor to be placed next to the camera lens located in the rear of most smartphones. The smartphone will be placed approximately an inch away from the patient’s temple, and when the signal is attained, the app will instantly register the temperature.
Results are very accurate, and by eliminating the need to touch the ill individual, can limit risks of disease transfer.
The new mobile health agent is equipped to perform a host of other health-related tasks as well – all equally convenient.
Edited by
Braden Becker
