Non-Invasive Screening for Elevated Skin Temperature and Respiratory Rate related to COVID-19 using Thermal Imaging

Master thesis (2021)

Authors

A.J. Thomas Mechanical Engineering

Contributors

Giovanni Traverso Massachusetts Institute of Technology (supervisor 1)
Hen-Wei Huang Massachusetts Institute of Technology (supervisor 1)
P.J. French Bio-Electronics - EEMCS (supervisor 1)
K. Rassels Bio-Electronics - EEMCS (supervisor 1)
F.C.T. van der Helm Biomechatronics & Human-Machine Control - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (supervisor 2)
T.M. Lopes Marta da Costa Bio-Electronics - EEMCS (supervisor 2)
Faculty
Mechanical Engineering
Copyright: © 2021 Akhil John Thomas
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Published Date

30-03-2021

Language

English

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Faculty

Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

Non-contact infrared thermal imaging provides a non-invasive, safe and accurate means for screening subjects. COVID-19 (a disease caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)) has changed how health care workers (HCW) interact with patients. Despite the usage of personal protective equipment (PPE), social distancing protocols, and unique facilities to screen individuals, the increase of infection rates among HCW is high. This has enormous consequences as HCW cannot provide direct patient care, thereby decreasing the workforce’s availability during the pandemic and has fuelled the urgent need for a non-invasive IR system to screen for potential cases of infections. Existing remote screening systems are susceptible to shortcomings caused by location and technique used for measurement, distance-ambient temperature associated inaccuracies and inefficient integration of hardware and software modules, invalidating their utility in the current situation. During this project, a non-invasive screening prototype was developed that mitigates these shortcomings by using an adaptive measurement method with automatic environmental compensation for screening elevated skin temperature and respiratory rate. The prototype is tested and validated in a controlled environment.

Files

Thesis.pdf
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