Why are Thermal Imaging cameras in high demand during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

How does a thermal camera work?

When the immune system detects an infection, it increases the core body temperature. According to recent research, temperature is increased particularly in a person's nasal area. There are certain limitations to this kind of technology. For instance, if a person wear glasses a thermal camera will not be able to detect their temperature. The thermal cameras also cannot detect viruses in particular, but only inform you about a person's body temperature. For effective results, it is important to have a very high resolution thermal image across a person's face. Thermal cameras being pointed at large crowds also will not provide enough resolution over multiple people's nasal areas for an exact body temperature measurement. 

We commonly see thermal imaging system setups that simply point a thermal camera into a crowd. This sort of setup is significantly flawed, when considering all factors that contribute to the accuracy of measuring human elevated body temperature. Distance is a very important factor when attempting to measure a person's body temperature through thermal imaging technology. Moving the camera from 0.5 meter to 6.0 meter away from the subject, can result in a temperature drop of about 2 degrees Celsius. This is due to the decreasing resolution of the number of pixels projected over the nasal area, when moving the camera further away from the subject.  

These sort of issues, when compounding would lead to a greater than 50% uncertainty in the screening system at best. Sufficient number of pixels (spatial resolution) is required for a thermal camera to accurately measure the skin surface temperature. With the limited amount of pixel resolution available, this poses a challenge when imaging a subject, even at a modest distance.

RGM Digital's Infrared Thermography & Disinfection System is designed to counter these issues. With a detection distance of 1.5 meters, high precision and 360° disinfection feature, this system ensures accurate body temperature measurement and disinfection for health and cleanliness purposes. For more information on this system, visit RGM Digital's Infrared Thermography Disinfection System. 

For inquiries contact sales@mechgen.net or call 04-2659501.