Full-body submillimetre-wave thermography for counter-pandemic applications

Luukanen, A.; Haimakainen, H.; Kajatkari, P.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created massive socio-economic disruptions globally. As it is certain that this pandemic is not the last one that the World is to experience, there are ongoing massive efforts to strengthen the resilience of today's globalised economy against the effects of future pandemics. One such measure, which has deployed widely, is the use of infrared cameras to detect febrile persons at e.g. border crossings. However, infrared thermography suffers from a number of shortcomings, which lead to high sensitivity but very poor specificity of detection. In this paper we outline our proposed method of full-body sub-mm wave thermography. The method builds on the fact that most clothing materials are relatively transmissive to submm-waves, while the skin emissivity is high, giving access to full-body thermal images. Highly specific detection of fever is possible thanks to the human body's physiological response to infections. Initial results from a small number of febrile persons will be presented.