Taking temperature of patients with potentially contagious disease is a risky business which healthcare workers have to live with, but not quite, if Thermowand becomes a reality. Pitched by Captains Engineering and Consulting helmed by Professor Tim Johnson of Wentworth Institute of Technology, Thermowand is an infrared temperature measuring device that allows you to stay three feet away from a patient while accurately picks up his or her temperature. The benefit of being able to take a patient’s temperature from a wide distance like 3 feet as in the case of Thermowand, significantly reduces the caregiver’s exposure to any potential contagious disease since close contact to perform such routine check can be avoided altogether.
What you see here is Thermowand in its raw electronic form which consists of a breadboard with working sensor, along with a display that shows the temperature to hundredths of a degree Centigrade. The device is said to have been tested using a calibrated ambient temperature-generating black box at up to 4 feet and is capable attaining a temperature measurement accuracy of +/- 0.1 degrees Centigrade. Thermowand is currently in its initial phase of development and testing, which will followed by two more phases before it is ready to hit the market. The hardware is there and it is now the matter of ensuring its accuracy and putting together a pre-production electronic package – both which will be carried in phase two.
As it turns out, the surface skin temperature differs from the temperature taken orally and part of the phase two’s work include correlating these two temperatures to present an accurate reading. That said, besides financial aid that would help make this groundbreaking medical device available, Thermowand needs help in collecting temperature data contributed by people like you and me for calibrating the device to display a normal oral thermometer reading. So, you don’t really need to contribute money to help make it a success; all you need is to take the temperature survey hosted at Infrared Medical Technology website.
The final part of phase two will see the device getting a proper housing, complete with battery compartment, ready for phase 3 human testing sometime in Spring 2016. However, Thermowand is clearly not intended for personal use as indicated by its asking price on Kickstarter. Though so, you can still help it financially by pledging for other more affordable perks, or taking the temperature survey as a contribution to the temperature data collection required for the development of the device. You can learn more about Thermowand’s development in the video below.
submitted via TIP US page.
