COVID-19 – Alliance – BATMAN: Body Accurate Temperature Measurement Approach by Non-Contact infrared
“COVID-19 – Alliance – BATMAN: Body Accurate Temperature Measurement Approach by Non-Contact infrared”: In many situations, person’s temperature is a very important data to obtain. It could flag a potential warning situation, such as at airports, ports of entry, waiting rooms in clinics, and obviously in hospitals and in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) where traditional measurements with usual thermometers are either impossible or to be avoided due to potential risks for medical personal.
While there are plenty of offers on the market for «infrared temperature devices», it is known that taken “as is” such devices are at best useless for accurate temperature measurement. What we propose with BATMAN is an accurate approach: a thermal model coupled with advanced image processing using artificial intelligence will follow in-time and track the person, locate the zones of interests for the measurement and accurately provide a temperature of that person within less than 0.25 C with respect to the gold standard medical measurements (rectal, oral), thank to a continuous calibration with a with a target reference temperature (a blackbody) present in the field of view of the used infrared camera. For the project an ICU access is granted with all ethical approvals and it is expected more than 1 000 patients will be recorded during the year of the project (at CISSS Chaudièere/Appalaches, CISSS: Centre de Sante et Services Sociaux / Health and Social Services Center, Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu-de-Lévis).
Moreover we identified sub-elements for a «Canadian solution» to avoid as much as possible the issues related to import of medical supplies we experienced last winter. Finally our industrial partner will provide access to a variety of infrared cameras, computers, software for the involved team personal.
