It has become an iconic image of the coronavirus outbreak in China: a masked official aiming what appears to be a small white pistol at a traveler's forehead.For weeks, this ominous-looking device has been deployed at checkpoints across China -- tollbooths, apartment complexes, hotels, grocery stores
It has become an iconic image of the coronavirus outbreak in China: a masked official aiming what appears to be a small white pistol at a traveler’s forehead.
The thermometers determine temperature by measuring the heat emanating from the surface of a person’s body. Often, however, those wielding the tools don’t hold them close enough to the subject’s forehead, generating unusually low temperature readings, or hold them too close and get a high reading. The measurements can be imprecise in certain environments, like a dusty roadside, or when someone has taken medication to suppress a fever.
In theory, the thermometers, as well as more complex cameras that can also measure the heat coming off a person, allow local officials to quickly determine who may have a fever and then pull those people aside for further testing. So far, tens of thousands of people have contracted the coronavirus, and this week the death toll passed the 1,000 mark. Last month, the World Health Organization said that temperature screenings could reduce “the risk of importation.
“They could have been exercising, they could be taking certain drugs,” said Jim Seffrin, an expert on infrared devices at the Infraspection Institute in New Jersey. “A person who’s been trying to catch a flight in an airport for which they are late — they may have run down a concourse.” “Even the governments are fighting for the products among themselves,” Mo said, noting that prices had climbed to three to five times the usual level. “Local governments want to guarantee their own needs first.”
The company’s cameras and thermometer guns have a margin of error of 0.1 to 0.2 degrees Celsius, according to Strahan, who has been selling infrared cameras since the 1990s. But many products on the market are less reliable.
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