Correction of human forehead temperature variations measured by non-contact infrared thermometer

Shajkofci, A.

Fever is a common indicator for symptoms of infections, including SARS-CoV-2 or influenza. Non-contact infrared thermometers are able to measure forehead temperature in a timely manner and perform a fast fever screening in a population. However, forehead temperature measurements differ greatly from basal body temperatures and are the target of massive perturbations from the environment. Here we gathered a dataset of N=19392 measurements using the same precision infrared sensor in different locations while tracking both outside temperature, room temperature, time of measurement, and identity. From this, we propose a method able to extract and remove the influence of external perturbations and set a threshold for fever based on local statistics. This method can help manufacturers and decision-makers to build and use more accurate tools so as to maximize both sensitivity and specificity of the screening protocol.