Introduction
If you’ve ever wished you could just use your phone as a thermometer to check your temperature rather than stressing yourself going to the pharmacy, then your wish is about to come to pass through the Feverphone thermometer. Fever is the most commonly cited symptom of common illnesses like malaria, hypertension, diabetes, and many other infections and diseases.
For quick diagnoses to prevent the spread, and enhance quick treatment, a temperature check is very crucial. The primary concern with temperature isn’t that it’s difficult to measure; it’s just that people don’t have thermometers. That is why researchers and manufacturers have found a way to incorporate phone thermometers to improve health efficiency.
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has created an app called FeverPhone, which transforms smartphones into thermometers without adding new hardware. Instead, it uses heat sensors called thermistors, which are present in common digital thermometers and smartphones. By holding a phone to your forehead, and the screen making contact with it, users are able to get a reading of their temperature. When tested on 37 patients in the ER, FeverPhone was able to measure temperatures with an accuracy comparable to some commercial thermometers. The app is the first to use existing phone sensors to estimate whether people have fevers or not, making it the first phone thermometer ever.
Diagnosing fevers is a useful public health tool; high temperature is often a sign of infection. Oral reading of over 37.8°C is considered the clinical limit, and while a fever per se is generally not a cause for alarm, even a low fever can be trouble for infants. Readings of 39.4°C and up mean it’s time to seek help for adults.
How it works
The team harnessed the thermistors already in smartphones, which are primarily used for measuring battery temperature. The team realized the thermistors, already in smartphones, which are primarily used for measuring battery temperature when combined with a phone screen’s ability to measure skin-to-screen contact, could be used to figure out the temperature of the user’s body.
By reading the air temperature and adjusting the difference when the phone is in contact with the skin, the thermistors can measure how warm the person’s body is. The app uses the thermistors to track how fast the phone heats up, then uses the screen’s sensors to measure how much of that increase is coming from the person.
But the researchers realized they could use these sensors to track heat transfer between a person and a phone. The phone touchscreen could sense skin-to-phone contact, and the thermistors could gauge the air temperature and the rise in heat when the phone touched a body.
Since the sensors are supposed to gauge the phone’s battery heat, the app tracks how quickly the phone heats up and then uses the touchscreen data to account for how much of that comes from a person touching it. As they added more test cases, the researchers were able to adjust the model to account for the variations in things such as phone accessories.
After much consideration, the team was ready to test the app on people. The researchers took the FeverPhone thermometer to the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Emergency Department for a clinical trial where they compared its temperature estimates against an oral thermometer reading.
The team initiated the process by utilizing bags of water heated with a sous-vide machine, aiming to replicate a forehead. To measure temperature, the team pressed various phone models against the bags. Additionally, a range of accessories, including screen protectors and cases, were employed to regulate and account for variations in people’s individual phone configurations.
Afterward, feverPhone underwent a small-scale clinical trial conducted at the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Emergency Department, involving 37 patients. Out of these participants, 16 individuals exhibited mild fever symptoms. The trial served as a testing ground to assess the performance and efficiency of the FeverPhone thermometer in a real clinical setting.
During the testing process, patients were instructed to hold the phone against their forehead, placing their fingers on the corners to reduce any heat transfer from their hands. The duration of this contact was approximately 90 seconds. FeverPhone thermometer, accurately measured core body temperature, with an average error of only 0.229 °C. This level of accuracy fell well within the clinically acceptable limit of 0.731 °C, demonstrating the reliability and precision of the FeverPhone thermometer in assessing body temperature.
They found that FeverPhone’s thermometer temperature estimates are comparable to commercial thermometers. So you can imagine putting your phone to your forehead and measuring in 90 seconds whether you have a fever or not
Conclusion
Overall, the FeverPhone thermometer is going to be a major contributor to reducing the quick spread of diseases and infections as well as ensuring prompt response to “minor” (as it’s called) health challenges, usually taken for granted at first until it becomes catastrophic. Generally, it will improve the standard of living and the health sector of our great nation Nigeria. For now, It is still undergoing some evaluation process to check for lapses according to the team of researchers, so as to ensure it’s safe for use by everyone including those with higher body temperatures.
When it officially launches, we will be here to tell you how to install and use it on your smartphones and mobile devices. Visit our page @webmanager.ng to know when it launches and also know more about latest technology updates.
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