Singapore’s national agency – Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS) – has developed with Kronikare, a local startup, iThermo, a temperature screening solution enhanced with artificial intelligence.
iThermo analyzes and identifies people who have or show fever symptoms and is currently being tested at IHiS in Serangoon North and St. Andrews Community Hospital (SACH).
Singapore has officially raised the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) alert level from yellow to orange following the growing threat of COVID-19 (formerly known as 2019-nCOV). The orange status of DORSCON involves screening and temperature monitoring in most public spaces.
iThermo uses a smartphone equipped with thermal cameras and 3D lasers. The AI application processes and analyzes the images of the smartphone’s camera (which captures facial features) and maps them onto the images of the thermal camera (which measures temperature) and the laser camera (which measures distance).
The Smart Health solution that uses AI can recognize human facial features from thermal images to measure forehead temperature, including individuals wearing glasses, surgical masks, hats and other headgear, even when they walk.
The solution also includes distance analysis and compensation (as temperature measurements are reduced with distance). It can accurately measure temperatures up to a distance of three meters from the camera.
Thanks to these features iThermo reduces the need for manual temperature screening and provides guidance on how to perform secondary controls for people with fever identified by the solution. With iThermo, the time required for manual screening is reduced and the risk of virus exposure to frontline medical personnel is also reduced.
The solution also includes a dashboard that provides real-time reports and updates on people monitored and those identified as having a fever.
IHiS and Kronikare co-created the iThermo solution in two weeks. It is now being tested and the results are encouraging. We have received requests from healthcare institutions and other sectors, including retail and banking,” said Bruce Liang, CEO of IHiS, in a statement.
Digital-health 